


Story Time

by KoalaBoi



Category: maxtul
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-01-31 20:57:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18599278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoalaBoi/pseuds/KoalaBoi
Summary: Max and Tul have never held a full conversation together but find themselves bonding over the fact they both have the same Journal. Later they realise the books have accidentally been swapped, this wouldn't be an issue if one Journal wasn't Max's Diary.





	1. Chapter 1

“three weeks! Three damn weeks Maengmum!” Max opened his room door, greeted by the sound of women screaming, on most occasions a normal man would be rather pleased to find women screaming in his home... but in this apartment? The only type of feminine screaming was from his flat mate Good anytime he saw the slightest insect. Wandering down the hallways, Max found his flat mates Olive and Maengmum shouting and bickering at one another from either side of the kitchen counters, Good sat in the middle quietly chewing on his toast as the two girls practically secured a declaration of war over whatever the topic was today.

Instead of running straight into the line of fire, Max slipped past Olive who was wielding a rather grime coated spoon, at this point Max wasn’t entirely sure there was a spoon even left, perhaps it was just a mould of the bacteria infested spoon that once stood there? Knowing the standards of health? Max didn’t dare question it. Instead he turned to the safest source of news, Good, who was now trying to duck slightly in case any of the cutlery drawers’ contents decided it wanted to take a short slight from one end of the kitchen to the other.

“what’s happened this time?” Max asked as he crouched alongside him. They had all been staying together for just under 2 years now, so nothing really surprised him at this point, the house had pretty much fallen into routine.

“Maengmum hasn’t done any of her chores in three weeks and now Olives just found something that resembles a spoon stuck to the inside of her favourite cup” Good replied as he pointed to the cup on the counter.

“...Good, her cups normally pink isn’t it?” Max asked looking at the now green, possibly highly toxic mug on the counter top.

“Why do you think she’s angry?” Good replied and finished his toast.

Max would have just slipped to the side and done what he needed to do before his class started for this morning, but it was like something clicked in his head that sent signals of alert through his head. He looked up at Maengmum who’s next sentenced certainly secured him a death sentence.

“Max was the one who used your cup last!”

‘gee thanks, shift the blame why don’t you maeng?’ Max thought to himself before he felt the back of his t-shirts collar get tugged backwards rather harshly and there was only one set of hands in the whole apartment that had that kind of strength beside his own, and as of now? His own hands were trying to grip for the nearest surface.

“MAX! you were left with one god damn job! Keep my room clean whilst I was away... and DON’T use my stuff! I swear to god you’re all impossible to live with!” Olive screamed as she let Max’s collar go finally, her finger prints creased deeply into the material from how tight her grip was on him. If it had been his actual neck, he was sure he would have died.

“hey! But your cups” Max dared to pick up the toxic cup and wiggled it “they have such cute little straw holes”

“put a straw in that and all you’ll breath up is asbestos!” she slapped at his hand before Max could make the foolish decision to put any single part of the cup near his lips.

“hey... you can’t complain about not getting done in this house, when did you last do the washing? hmm?” Max asked to shift the blame AGAIN. That was something that happened far too much, no issues were resolved, there were only more arguments about more issues until everybody was to blame so they would drop the subject.

“jokes on you I was the last person to do it!” Olive spat out a laugh as she defended herself, but the laughter was soon drawn to a halt when Max pushed his hand on the washing bag only to hear a crunch in return.

“I think I just snapped your gym socks, olive” Max didn’t give anyone else another second to bicker about household chores, the truth was NONE of the chores were ever completed by any of them unless they were knee deep in trash.

Now he was going to be late for not only class but that would make him late for the rest of the day from being held back for the time he missed. Leaning over quickly he snatched the slice of toast that Good had just placed in his mouth away and took a bite out of it before putting it back into Good’s open mouth when he saw the sad face he was pulling.

“damn it don’t look at me like that” he grumbled and pressed on his chin to close his mouth “I’ll see you guys later alright?” He said as more of a rhetorical question before he slipped out of the door.

 

* * *

 

‘There’s literally no point in going to class this late after it starting' Max thought to himself as he looked at his watch.

**9:05am**

Max shrugged and fixed his backpack as he set off for the library and not his 9:00am class that he was ‘too late’ to attend.

* * *

 

 

 

When Max found his usual spot in the library which consisted of a small circle of tables surrounded by the largest bookshelves in the full building, he was surprised to see that the area which was normally desolate was occupied. Nobody ever sat here, mainly because Max would throw his books and laptop all over the place, but for once there was an actual human here, not another cardboard cut-out with the words ‘STUDY’ on it like they kept doing before. But a literal living breathing studying human. Max wasn’t too fond of sharing his studying space, but he had work to do and he was too determined to finish it to care.

When sitting down he put his laptop onto the desk, his notebooks and study material following. As he placed the material down, he had allowed himself to look over at the male beside him for a split second.

‘he doesn’t looks the type to come here’ He thought to himself as he glanced around the area to see if he had perhaps come here to hide from somebody or maybe his friends were here, or he was acting like this for the sake of one of the girls that studied in the library. But no matter how long they both sat in silence, nobody came, he didn’t move, and he genuinely seemed to be studying.

The male beside him wasn’t a generic student of course but he wasn’t like your fictional males that were tall dark and handsome, He just looked like a gym rat, too muscular for his own good, well-kept hair and your classic pretty boy face. Max would be lying if he said he didn’t think the male was attractive, not attractive to him per say, but he wasn’t hideous.

Glancing down at his phone, Max had realised just how much time he had waste on trivial topics, so without even looking to the side he stretched his hand out to grab at his leather covered notebook, surprised to find he had grabbed somebodies’ arm.

“shit! Err...my bad” Max muttered before sliding his book to the side and kept a decent distance from the male’s arms in case he embarrassed himself in a similar way like he had just done.

“no don’t worry I was- hey, no way!” The male who had been studying beside him finally spoke.

‘He even has a douche bag voice...wow.’ Max thought then glanced down at the item he had in his hand. A Journal identical to his own.

“oh- we have the same notebook.” Max said, not speaking at his full volume yet, he didn’t normally talk to those out with his group.

“did you get yours from Korea too?” Max nodded in response to the male’s question, what were the chances of two people getting their identical books from the exact same place?

“no way, did you get yours shipped over or did you visit?”

“I... I visited for a trip with my friends two years back” Max replied.

“seriously? I think we might have gone around the same time; I went two years ago as a kind of reward for getting into my course.”

“really? Damn I went for the same reason actually.”

“what course did you get into?” The other male asked as he turned to face him, showing some interest in what he had to say.

“uh I got into engineering science.”

“no way! That’s how you look so familiar! We have classes together!” Max jumped at how loud the other spoke and the ‘SHHH’ of the librarian could be heard from the other end of the room. He only laughed slightly as he apologised for his loudness, causing a sparse laugh to pass his lips.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before, I mean not in class anyway.” Max admits.

“I usually sit up the back...you probably wouldn’t have noticed me, but we do, I recognise your hair” The others response only makes Max put a hand up to his hair, questioning what was wrong with his hair for it to become memorable.

“don’t worry it’s nothing bad, it’s just fluffy, everyone else has short hair, so you’re easy to spot.”

Max smiles slightly and opens his mouth to speak, to ask his name, but his words were cut off by the sound of books clattering and people chatting loudly, around the corner came three people Max knew all too well, Tay, godt and Aim. godt was the swim captain, always chasing the tails of the swim team girls and was pretty much sleazy, Aim was the head student nurse for the sports teams so pretty much anybody that could walk, run and stumble over their own two feet knew her, although not many knew about her temper like max did. And then there was Tay...Tay was just...well actually Max didn’t have the slightest idea how he knew who he was, he was just... there?

“Hey Tul! Man come on!” Tay shouted as he was dragged past the opening in the book shelves.

“alright! Alright I’m coming!” he huffed.

Now Max had a name to put to this person’s face, Tul. ‘Kind of basic’ he thought before he saw Tul turn back to him.

“I gotta boost. I’ll see you in class after the break. Yeah?” Tul asked as he packed his items into his bag.

Max nodded in response and sat back in his chair, watching as Tul left with his friends. He grumbled and ran his hands through his hair before he turned back to look at his work ‘an essay isn’t going to write itself’ he told himself before he finally settled down to work.

 

* * *

 

 

Sooner than expected, Max turned to see the librarian closing up and turning the lights off, it must have been like 10pm at this point, that was when most places on campus shut, it had become routine at this point to sit inside all day and just study, he didn’t really know what else to do since his friends group all seemed to be passing their classes with flying colours, they could relax, he couldn’t. Soon enough Max had decided that it was probably wise to get packed up and out before he got locked inside the building again.

As Max picked up the last item for his bag, he noticed something wasn’t right. ‘when did I tear a page of my notebook?’ he asked himself as he flicked the little latch open and flicked to the damaged page.

‘numbers...drawings? DOODLES?! This isn’t my journal’ Max threw his bag over his shoulder and set out of the building as fast as he possibly could, almost tripping down each of the steps.

 

* * *

 

 

Tul was sat on his couch as his friends all talked about planning a night out, as much as he needed one, he really couldn’t, he had course work to finish.

“Tul if you’re not gonna join us, can you at least give me the number of that broad from last week?” godt asked leaning to the book that was now on the table, but within seconds Tul snatched it up.

“hey! My book not yours. I’ll get you it.” Tul replied as he flicked his book open and continues to flick through the pages

“come on you don’t have that many numbers! Quit playing” Godt grumbled but Tul stopped and looked up.

“I don’t have any numbers, this isn’t my notebook, this is somebody’s diary” Tul says as he throws the book down onto the table showing that it was not his in case the others in the room did not believe him.

“Really...?” Tay fell silent then threw himself forward “LET ME READ IT!”

“no!” Tul held the book up above his head and pushed Tay back who wasn’t giving up.

“come on! It’s not even your book!”

“it’s mine now!”

“so, it’s the cutie in the libraries book?” Aim asked as she looked up from her wine glass.

“cutie? You think that? That fluffy haired guy was a cutie? Phah! No, I mean the books his. But he’s not a cutie”

“I didn’t say a specific person” Aim teased and looked up at Tul who still pushed Tay away.

He decided it was best that the book remained in his safety in his room. “Tay, asshole!” he kicked him out of the room and moved some things to put the book back, only to stop and open it slightly.

‘maybe just one page?’ he thought to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

“What’s gotten you so stressed out?” Meangmum asked bluntly as she left the bathroom, a towel wrapped tightly around her hair and a sheet mask placed over her dainty face, her pink fluffy slipper covered feet shuffled quietly along the floor, fiddling with her house coat in annoyance as she made her way over to Max who was stood in the kitchen drinking cup after cup of water, It was a tell-tale sign that he was stressed, but right now her quiet time had been disrupted which only got on her nerves.

Max glanced over his shoulder as he drank his third cup of water, as he turned to meet the thing that looked like a soggy sheet monster, his cheeks puffed up in an obviously failed attempt to stop the contents of his mouth from spraying out. Quickly Max spat the water out as he yelled a little, only to feel a solid ‘WHACK’ to his stomach, finding him slightly.

“m-My bad!” he groaned as he stood up again from the slightly hunched position he had fallen into when Maengmum hit him.

“your bd? You got my pyjamas wet!” she scolded “Anyway, you’re taking up all of my time, tell me what the hell you’re sulking about before I go back to shower and let you get water poisoning.” Maengmum spoke bluntly before Max shoved past her in an over acted hissy-fit.

As he got to the table, Meangmum followed close behind and glanced at the book he opened.

“it’s your sketch book?”

“NO! you’d think that! But- “Max was ready to scream and shout and just express just how stressed he was about this situation. Until Olive’s door was thrown open of course.

 Normally when you open a door for a room in darkness, the light fills the room, but not this time, Olive’s shadow loomed over the living room as she stared at the pair stood by the coffee table, her hair like a birds nest, her face shiny from the obvious drool that had formed during her nap.

“Oh no- “Maengmum covered her ears before Olive heaved in as much air as she could.

“YOU KNOW I TAKE NAPS AT THIS TIME! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN BREATH THIS LOUD?!” Olive snapped as she stormed across the space between the table and her room door. Any time the smallest of the house got angry it made absolutely everybody jump, Max and Maengmum had both already shrunk down into their seats as they looked up at her, expecting the first object to be thrown at either of them.

Olive lifted Max’s notebook and just as she was about to swing it at him, acting like she was hitting a bug, she noticed that the drawings were far from Max’s style. “this isn’t your book...who’s journal did you take?” Olive asked as she flicked through the pages as fast as she could before Max snatched the book away.

“hey! Not for any of your eyes, this is...I don’t know, I don’t know who he is or where he’s from? Oh my god, he has my book” Max said with a panicked tone as he looked through the book hoping to find contact details but was only greeted by a long list of phone numbers all categorised.

“who? And it’s just a book, get another one...” Maengmum asked as she wriggled over to his side to look at the book, not recognising the hand writing.

“It’s my diary!” Max snapped, not realising how on edge he was until both girls took a swing at either of his arm, lecturing him on the tone he used with them.

“calm down! Describe him, I know most of the guys on campus”

“yeah Maeng, we know” olive replied before throwing herself down on a chair, smiling childishly at Maengmum who only shot glares at her.

Max drummed his fingers and grabbed a pencil and paper from his bag, he wasn’t good at being descriptive, but he could draw those descriptions.

“well to start with, he said we share a class, he’s in my year of engineering.” Max said before he started to draw the details, he remembered of him. “He’s friends with Aim, Godt and Tay too, huge eyes, muscular, his voice is deep? But like not too deep? I guess?” he responded as he kept drawing.

“thank god you can draw because right now I haven’t the slightest clue who you’re talking about” Maengmum spoke before Olive jumped up and ripped the drawing out from Max’s pencil.

“NO FUCKING WAY! You lost your diary to one of the gym rats?!” Olive snapped as she recognised instantly who was in the drawing, Maengmum standing to look too.

“huh? What’s the... what’s wrong? is that worse? Or?” Max didn’t really interact with the sports department, so he didn’t know what to expect from them.

“worse? WORSE? Oh, Max sweetie, dear god...Your life? It’s over, change your name, get a nose job and marry a rich man in Spain...that’s all you can do now” Maengmum grumbled as she knew exactly who Tul was, who his friends’ group was.

“that serious?” Max asked, hoping they were just joking, but the more they told him about what they do, what they have done to people and what he should expect from this? he only wished that he could fall further into the couch, slip between the cushions and just never come back out.

“uhuh, you need to get that back before it can be photocopied and sent around the whole of the university, okay?” Olive said and grabbed at Max’s arm, pulling him to his feet.

“fuck! Alright...but break just started and literally I will not be in class for like a week, what the hell am I supposed to do then?” he grumbled and looked down at the book.

“the gym!” a single slap hit the back of his head “he’s a gym rat, you’ll find him hanging out at the gym, you just need to figure out when...”  Olive replied before sitting back down, trying to take the book from Max’s grasp.

“alright so check the gym?”

“YES! “Both Maengmum and Olive snapped, and just like that, Max had pulled himself from the space he was sat in, onto his feet and over to the door of their dorm room. Only stopping when he heard Olive clearing her throat at an obnoxious volume that was obviously to grab his attention.

“what? Wasn’t I supposed to go to the gym? You Guys just told me...”

“at almost 12am? Sit your ass down and wait for morning” Olive grumbled and threw the book he had left on the coffee table at him.

“oh- yeah” Max grumbled, rubbing at the back of his neck before he watched as the girls who were sat in the living room slowly made their way back to their bed rooms.

“I’ll go first thing in the morning then...” he mumbled slightly before picking up the Journal and making his way to his room.

The chances of max getting any sleep were extremely slim due to the fact he felt like he was having a nervous breakdown over this book. It would have been fine if he had picked up the book for his notes, he could just restudy, but this was over a year worth of confidential writing in one place, stuff he didn’t tell even his roommates about, stuff about his sexuality, family life, dreams and such, now this highly private book was in the hands of probably the worst group in the whole of the university.

 

* * *

 

 

After hours of just sitting on his phone searching through Instagram, Twitter and practically ANY social media possible, searching for this guy’s face. He was brought back to reality by knocking on his door followed by Good sticking his head in the open space.

“Olive told me to wake you up early for something, what have I missed?” He asked as he placed a cup of Coffee on the cabinet just beside his door.

“nothing I-Is it morning already?” Max asked as he jumped up from his bed, pulling a shirt on quickly and threw the curtains open, covering his eyes as the brightness of the morning sun rising over the buildings across from his window shone directly into his eyes.

“yeah, did you not sleep? Like at all?”

“didn’t have time I was- Looking for something, someone, I guess” He replied as he approached the cup of coffee, he was exhausted, so a caffeine fix was like a gift from the gods at this point.

“somebody? Who? The guy in the drawing?” Good asked as he pointed to the half-crumpled sketch on the table in the living room.

“them? Uh... yeah they have something of mine I need, gotta get it back but I don’t actually know where he is, who he is or when he’ll be back in the library” Max grumbled before slurping loudly at the hot drink in his hands.

“That’s Tul Pakorn, he should be at the Gym at any point this morning.” Good smiled and swiped through his phone showing Max the man he was looking for and his Instagram story.

“how- why do you follow him?”

“he’s cute? Plus, he posts memes sometimes” Good replied as he shrugged “If you go now- you might catch him on the way in”

“alright, alright” Max drank the tar like substance as quickly as he possibly could before slipping his shoes on and making his way out towards the main campus facilities.

 

* * *

 

 

Max wasn’t one for rushing around, in fact he was usually late to every class and always last to leave or arrive at places. But not today, constantly he bashed into people, stumbling over the feet of those in the hall as he carelessly sped round corners and pushed his way towards the gym.

As he turned the corner passing the library he slipped to an abrupt stop, looking at the person he had almost bumped into.

“sorry I- YOU!” Max pointed at Tul who only raised his hand and slapped his finger away from pointing.

“didn’t your mother ever teach you that it’s rude to point?” Tul asked as he raised the book he was holding up to Max’s line of view.

“y-you have my...my notebook.” Max said as he stuttered when it came to explaining just what Tul had of his,

Tul held the book up more and looked at the back and front cover “oh? You mean this? your diary?” A smug grin growing on Tuls lips, he knew he was annoying Max already.

“yea...”

Tul held out the book for Max to take before he moved it out of his way and slightly out of his reach “don’t I get to know your name at least? I mean after all, you know mine.” Tul pointed to the back of the book where the name Tul Pakorn was written,

‘Damn it, if I had seen that sooner I probably could have found him easier, messaged him instead of having to talk to him so much in person’ he thought to himself before looking up at Tul with gritted teeth.

“eugh, fine fine, It’s max...” He mumbles before leaning into Tul to snatch the book back that he held behind him, pushing the others book against him as he stepped away, checking everything was intact and no pages were missing.

“damn” Tul huffed slightly as he flicked through his own book.

“what? It’s all there, I didn’t even open it” Max spoke bluntly as he looked through his book again.

“you could have at least written your number down” Tul replied looking to the side with a slight pout.

Max glanced up and shook his head “I don’t like men like that” He said quickly before turning away, wanting to walk off, Tul had gotten on his nerves for the last time and he had decided at this moment in time he never wanted to become acquainted with him ever again.

Tul chuckled and stepped to the side to block Max’s path, patting a hand on his shoulder but it didn’t really achieve anything other than another strong-featured glare from Max.

“hey... your secrets safe with me buddy” Tul said accompanied by a quick wink of his eye.

“huh? I- YOU READ IT!” Max nudged his hand away and gripped his book harder, in his mind he had hit Tul with the book dozens of times, like a crazed man trying to beat a bug, and Tul was the bug that just kept coming back, a cockroach.

“so what? I was bored and you had all of my notes, what else could I do?” Tul didn’t really view the extreme breach of privacy to be so problematic, besides, he didn’t think any of his secrets were really that big.

“NOT READ MY BOOK?!” Max snapped before hitting Tuls arm “what if I read through yours huh?”

“you wouldn’t find much”

“yeah just some useless damn numbers, mines are actually important- “Max stopped himself as he realised, he had just let slip that he had looked through Tul’s book too.

“ooh! So, I can’t look in yours, but you’ve looked in mine? nice one! Not!... the double standards are Real!” Tul huffed and rubbed at his arm.

“no! I didn’t...” Max fell silent before keeping his head down, hearing Tul grumble and felt a nudge to his arm which made him look up.

“I’m hungry, you complaining, and whining has built up SUCH an appetite, buy me lunch...” Tul said, totally testing his luck.

“wha-? Why? No.” Max huffed

“I know what your Book says...” Tul teased, this had to be blackmail, he just knew it.

“fine! if I buy you lunch will you keep your mouth shut about what my damn book says?”

“alright- Maximillian” Tul grinned as he said the full name that was written in his book, a name only his elders called him and he hated, it wasn’t even his birth name.

“say that name again and I’ll beat you with my book like the damn scrounging bug you are” Max huffed, his tone and glare made Tul grin, the more he annoyed him the more Tul enjoyed himself.

“you’re so easy to annoy!”

“no, you’re just really irritating, you weren’t like this yesterday”

“I was tired and studying yesterday, plus we were in the library man, seriously, no respect for quiet public spaces...how shameful” Tul teased and grabbed his arm to pull him down the hall “come on!”

 

* * *

 

 

Once they had gotten to the place Tul wanted to go for lunch Max only huffed “we go to the same place?”

‘great another place I might have to see him at’ he thought to himself before he ordered exactly what he wanted and what Tul wanted, and boy could he eat, Tul probably would have ordered the whole menu if he could.

After sitting in silence whilst they both ate, Max finally spoke...

“why would you keep a book of girls numbers on you at all times?” He asked, seeing Tul look up and grin.

“hmm? So, you DID look at my book?”

“only seemed fair since you looked at mine...now just answer me” Max grumbled not wanting to bicker with him any longer.

“it’s not girls numbers” Was all Tul replied before he leaned back in his chair, drinking the coffee he had ordered, slurping loudly, trying to annoy Max, but little did he know Max slurped JUST as loud, nothing apart from Tuls voice could annoy him at this point.

“Oh, so it’s co-ordinates then? Didn’t peg you as the Indiana jones sort” Max chuckled, he wasn’t dumb, he knew they were numbers.

“No, it’s boys’ numbers” Tul said in a hushed voice, normally he was so obnoxious and loud, but right now when he spoke it was like small text, like he had just shrunken into himself.

“huh?” Max sat up and looked at the male across from him, raising a brow at his words.

“you heard me! I said earlier that your secret was safe with me, not just because I’m a nice guy” He began to speak

‘pppft nice guy?’ Max thought before looking back up to Tul.

“it was in case you knew mine” He began to peel the wrapper of the muffin he was eating away, fidgeting as much as possible. As he picked a piece of muffin off, he simply threw it at Max who rather quickly flicked it back at him.

“what do you mean? Your secret?” He questioned and at that moment in time Tul realised Max probably hadn’t seen the parts of his book that had genuine writing and secrets in it.

“Gay” Tul spoke quietly again before shoving as much muffin in his mouth as possible then washing it down with coffee.

Max looked at how nervous he seemed and cocked a brow.

“by the way, you shouldn’t have your coming out on the front page of your diary, people could out you easier...”

“it’s not a secret” Max laughed slightly, did this idiot genuinely not know? Max was told constantly by girls in his year that he ‘radiated’ gay, that from his choice of friends group they could tell he was gay... he hadn’t really understood that though, how being friends with women or taking care of himself and not being an asshole made you seem ‘gay’. It wasn’t a descriptive word, but he had stopped caring at this point.

“but you said you didn’t like guys that way earlier?” Tul only sat up right in confusion, had Max been messing with him the whole time?

“no, you got disappointed that I never gave you my number, I told you I didn’t like men THAT way, I don’t just hand my number out to anybody and everybody” He huffed out a soft laugh as he looked at Tuls face.

“what?!”

“I said...it’s not a secret, you gym rats are just too slow at finding out stuff like this because of the testosterone blocking your damn brain cells... but y’know it’s good to know that there are more ‘like me’” he said moving his fingers in the shape of quotations before continuing to mess with the napkin in front of himself.

With one more huff of laughter Max pulled himself to his feet, looking down at the confused and shocked Tul at the table. “thanks for my book back by the way...” he said before leaving Tul alone at the table.

Once Max had left, Tul was still sat at the table in silence ‘did I just? Out myself?’ He asked himself, if he knew Max being gay wasn’t a secret then he would never have said so openly to Max that he was, what if this turned on him? Now he didn’t have any verbal ammunition or information to use if Max ever tried to let slip, he was gay.

“damn it!” Tul snapped slightly before turning to apologise to the caff workers for his loudness, looking down now at the hand he had slammed into the muffin


	3. Chapter 3

“So, you’re telling me that you not only got your book back? But the most attractive guy in this year asked for YOUR number, you bought him lunch AND he told you he was gay? I... you could not make this shit up” Maengmum said as she sat down sipping slightly at the herbal tea, she had in between her hands. “spill the tea, come on” She said, leaning over and placing her cup onto the table, clapping her hands slightly to tell Max to hurry up. And speak about what was going on.

“I uh, I’m not spilling your tea...why would I-?” Max asked confused as to why Maengmum spoke like this most of the time.

“no not MY tea, THE tea, the Truth? The gossip? What exactly went down yesterday? Because you came back and slept for like a solid 1 hours afterwards, and you just happened to meet him in the hallway? I call bullshit, you must have been hooking up before hand or something, legit NOBODY has this much luck, you cannot be serious” Maengmum snapped slightly through irritation, she just couldn’t understand how she tries so hard with guys and gets nowhere, whereas Max legit just had to exist around one of the most attractive men in the faculty and he had already had him ask for his number.

“I am, 100% serious Maeng, I gave him his book back, and he complained that I hadn’t wrote my number, we bickered, he black mailed me for a free lunch, we talked, he thought I was closeted so he told me he was gay...and then I wrote my number down on a napkin. Nothing was happening beforehand that’s all” Max responded as he got up, fixing his gym clothes into his backpack, looking at Olive who was now waiting at the door for him.

“uhhh fine, fine... I’ll believe you for now, but only because if you don’t go to the gym now, you’ll never go.” Maengmum huffed and picked up her cup, sighing as she watched Max leave.

 Good only entered the apartment as Max left, pointing over his shoulder to the dorm mate that had just left. “is he going to the gym?” he asked as he looked at his phone.

“yeah? You should try it and maybe we wouldn’t have to call those on the weightlifting team every single time you want a jar of pickles opened.” Meangmum sighed as she put her cup back down, grumbling at the fact her peace and quiet was destroyed once again.

“Oh, then he might get hit book back!” Good smiled and jumped down onto the couch beside Maeng, taking the cup from her hands and sipping at the tea.

“hey!” Maeng slapped at his hand before taking his cup back “if you didn’t spend so much time out with mystery men you meet online then perhaps, you’d know that he already HAS his book back, why would he- OH MY GOD TUL IS THERE ISNT HE?!” Maengmum asked as she grinned and rushed to open her phone, looking at Tul’s most recent Instagram story, He was at the Gym with his whole group.

“yeah? What’s going on? I’m so behind?”

“Drama, lots and LOTS of drama sweetie, don’t get involved” Maengmum pinched his cheeks before going to get ready, not wanting to miss anything that happened, but she also still had to do a face pack, do her hair, do her makeup, pick an outfit AND stop for tea before showing up at the gym, she just hoped she wouldn’t miss a thing, but because of the amount of time she took to get ready? It was more than obvious that she’d miss everything that happens.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Max was the first to go into the Gym when Olive decided to go fetch them something to drink whilst they work out. Twenty minutes had passed, and his eyes were locked to his phone as he watched videos whilst he ran on the treadmill, both earphones were in until he noticed Tul wandering past talking to his friends’ group, then his attention was completely off his phone and onto him.

Tul noticed him straight away and looked directly at him and smirked, winking slightly before turning to talk with his friends’ group. Max’s attention was still on him, and for almost a full half an hour later they two exchanged glances, no matter how awkward or annoying they were at the time. The glances weren’t the flirtatious type, it was more angsty glaring and both getting annoyed at the fact either of them still existed.

Soon enough Tul vanished to work out finally when Max left the treadmill and went to work on weights, but the peace and quiet didn’t last if he had hoped. From behind he could hear wolf whistling and whooping and calling, he gritted his teeth knowing exactly who was doing it.

“HEY PRETTY BOY!” Tul shouted, it wasn’t in a serious way though, it also wasn’t a joking manner either, Tuls tone was strictly used to irritate and mock Max.

Max gritted his teeth and didn’t rise to the four that mocked and called over at him, calling him stuff like a pansy, princess and referring him to a woman any time he just couldn’t lift certain weights, he was too distracted and if he had gritted his teeth any harder he probably would have smashed his own teeth.

“hey...Max... calm down” Olive said as she walked over and helped him out the weight bar back into place, seeing that he was straining himself.

“I’m fine, I’m- “Max was cut off once again by Tuls now irritating voice.

“hey, look at this! a gay and a dyke walk into a gym, that’s gotta be the start of a bad joke” Tul grinned and leaned on the exercise ball that he kept hitting off the equipment to try be annoying.

“shut the fuck up Tul, don’t you have protein shakes to snort or something?” Olive hissed and glared slightly, she had kicked Tul’s ass in football and casually out of exercise before, she wasn’t afraid to do it again and show him up.

Tul squinted his eyes at her and huffed “you’re no fun, what’s got your knickers in a twist huh? Can’t handle the stress of having a gay friend?”

“I don’t know it seems pretty easy, but I could always get a second opinion from your group” Olive said bluntly before grabbing Max’s arm, She was there when Max first came out and knew he didn’t take homophobia too well, in fact it was like he shut down on himself just like he was doing now. “Max... come on” she said quietly and pulled him along beside her.

“what’s the matter? Too much of a sissy to handle a little slander?” Godt mocked from over Tul’s shoulder.

Max wasn’t one for conflict and turned back to Tul. “I forgot to tell you...it’s 08”

“what?” Tul asked as he looked up from his phone rather confused, Max hadn’t been talking at all or retaliating but suddenly this is all he said?

“when you asked for my number yesterday before we went for lunch, it’s 08...not 088, I wrote it wrote” Max rolled his eyes and shook his arm from Olives grip, he didn’t need babied, he didn’t need to be treated like a second class citizen and he definitely wasn’t going to deal with being treated like he was disgusting or wrong.

As he walked away, he could hear Tuls friends questioning him, a smirk now on Max’s face. He wasn’t cruel enough to out somebody, but he was cruel enough to make somebody think he would do that.

“what is he on about Tul? You asked for his number?” Aim asked as she nudged at his arm, and all Tul could do was grumble and grit his teeth. They all questioned him but all Tul did was sit ignoring their questions, thinking about Max, and quickly he edited the number he had put in the day before.

“listen guys, he’s messing with you, damn don’t take it so serious, I’m gonna shower up” Tul wanted away from his group and slipped off to the showers, The mental image of Max working out was imprinted in his head and no matter how hard he tried to think of anything else, everything else but that, he just couldn’t. “damn it Tul” he grumbled to himself before pushing the door open and grabbing it stuff to shower up.

 

* * *

 

 

As Tul entered the shower room he poked his head around the corner, hearing only one voice...and they were...singing? As he looked at the other in the shower room, he had realised it was Max.

‘he sings Disney songs in the shower?’ Tul questioned to himself before he leaned on the wall at the start of the showers.

“damn princess can sing”

At the sound of another person’s voice, Max fell silent and practically jumped out of skin, feeling like Tul had just given him a minor heart attack.

“Jesus! Fucking...what the hell?” Max threw his hands in front of himself, he was used to using the group shower at the gym, so he wasn’t the shy sort, but it was Tul...He didn’t even want to be shirtless around him let alone butt naked. He grumbled and moved to the corner of the shower to hide more of himself, a part of him questioning if Tul had heard him sing, but it was obvious at this point that he had, hence the princess comment.

“hey! Hey... don’t go covering yourself up on MY account.” Tul chuckled and made his way over to a shower close to Max but not so close that it was obvious he was trying to annoy him again.

“why do you keep hanging around like a bad smell? Don’t you have your friends to deal with?” Max huffed slightly as he turned his back to him.

Tul simply shook his head and stepped over slightly “nah, I’m here to shower”

“right beside me? There’s literally a whole shower room, pick another place and go” Max slid more to the side, as far into the corner as he could go at this point. Tul was making him feel uncomfortable at this point.

“why? Would you rather shower with a pretty boy gay than your own friends?” Max asked as he glanced over his shoulder, seeing Tul nod slightly.

“you’re a two-faced dick. Your friends are dicks too” Max said bluntly as he turned his head away, not wanting to carry out a conversation any longer with him. He was already in a bad mood from the shouting and name calling and teasing that went on in the main floor of the gym.

“it’s not my fault...” Tul responded.

‘What type of idiot answer is that? It’s not his fault? What’s not his fault? The words that left his mouth. Or his jackass actions? What a- ‘Max spoke in his head but trailed off more and more in thought before accidentally speaking out under his breath.

“prick” he mumbled before falling silent as he realised, he had finished his sentence out loud.

“what? Do you really have to keep up with the name calling huh? You almost outed me, isn’t that punishment enough?” Tul questioned as Max tried to ignore him again.

“you tried to belittle me, called my friend a dyke, you and your group also laughed at me and mocked me for being gay- I’m not sick enough to out you to people like that. But seeing you panic like that was fun”

“I didn’t mean to sound so harsh” Tul admitted as h began to sound genuine about the topic for once.

“well you were harsh, you off all people should understand how bad it is to deal with stuff like that, I mean that is why you’re still closeted right?” Max questioned, sounding like a parent scolding his young, he was completely done with dealing with those ignorant to how hurtful and stupid this stuff could be. He was more surprised at the fact somebody that was gay could act like this too.

“I... uh...” Tul fell silent finally, leaving Max to shower in silence for further ten minutes, it was awkward and tense suddenly, maybe because tul wasn’t easy to shut up.

“I’m sorry”

“what?” Max turned his head to face him quickly.

“I said I’m sorry, for what went down on the gym floor. I’m just so caught up in trying to keep this quiet from them and... I got carried away and acted like a total douche. I’m sorry” Tul wasn’t one for apologising nor was he the type to be even remotely serious about a topic, especially something serious like this, but he felt like he owed Max an apology, he was too harsh.

This was the last thing Max had expected to hear from Tuls lips, turning slightly over his shoulder as he washed the shampoo from his hair. He was slightly shocked, Tul was one of the tough sports guys that wouldn’t even apologise if he kicked a puppy. But he was able to get an apology?

“you’re actually serious about that?” Max asked seeing how the smug expression that was usually on Tuls face was now gone, blank and dull.

“uhuh...” Another few moments of silence followed.” Thanks for fixing your number for me” Tul spoke again finally. Sure, Max was angered why how he spoke in the Gym, but a part of him wanted to keep talking. “I was wondering why I couldn’t text you last night” Tul added quickly before he put his face under the shower head, soaking the bubbles off his hair and face.

“huh? You wanted to text? Me? Last night?” Max was genuinely surprised that he even wanted to use the number.

“yeah?” Tul said with a slight laugh as he looked out from the stream of water. “I mean you did leave your number. SOOO? What was I supposed to do with it? Use it for booty calls?” Tul teased as he splashed some of the water over at Max.

“I-I ‘m not a booty call!” Max whined slightly; he was a lot of things, but a cheap booty call was certainly not one of them.

“right right, my bad for assuming, sunshine, just the marks on your Back beg to differ” Tul said stifling a laugh from behind his now pursed lips.

“huh?! Damn it” Max turned as best as he could, his back out of Tul’s view whilst he still kept himself covered.

He had totally forgot about those marks; his back must have looked like a wild animal had attacked him at this point. He had gotten really drunk and messed around ONCE but for some reason that little incident kept coming back to haunt him every single time somebody saw his back, “it’s uh...it’s not what they look like, swear” Max said with a panicked tone as if he had to clear his name from any possibilities of being tagged as a slut.

“And you told me you don’t like men like THAT” Tul laughed before looking over at Max when he turned, he was so used to seeing him in class wearing thick jumpers or hiding behind several layers of baggy shirts, he hadn’t fully seen what his body was like, well at least not until today.

Tul would be lying if he said he DIDN’T enjoy the view, because he really did. Max didn’t have the flat or chunky body that he thought he had, he was TONED, probably more than Tul was, which kind of made him feel insecure about his own figure, he went to the gym so often, more than Max probably, and still his body wasn’t as good as that.

“your friends have no idea what you’re like- “Max said as he caught Tul looking right at his abs, he was used to it at this point, but he couldn’t help himself from laughing.

“h-huh? What? I- “Tul fell silent and quickly averted his eyes as he finished up showering.

“your ears are red” Max was getting on his nerves, he wasn’t like this with anybody, then suddenly, he was all shy and quiet. His eyes followed Max who was now leaving the shower room, wrapping his towel around his waist and entering the locker room.

“I-I’ll text you later then?” Tul said more like a question than a statement, as if he needed permission to call him.

“I dunno, will you be able to function right after all that wasted testosterone goes to your brain?” Max asked, continuing to the door after he had finally gotten dressed, a soft chuckle leaving his lips. Sure, they both couldn’t get along and their morals, friends’ groups and basically everything about one another were different, but the bickering between them was fun at times.

 

* * *

 

 

As Max left the changing room, he came face to face with Maengmum who was stood holding her phone, catching a glimpse of Tul standing in just a towel as the changing room door closed.

“Max, was it just you and Tul alone in there?” she asked before Max waved his hands defensively “don’t you even dare get the wrong idea!” He grumbled and nudged past her as she rushed after him asking for him to tell her every detail of what happened.

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

“can you stop checking your phone and give me a LITTLE of your attention? I’m trying to talk to you and you’ve just got your nose in your messages as if you’re waiting on something...” Maengmum grumbled then slammed her cup of tea on the table in annoyance at Max.

Three days, for three straight days Max had found himself distracted, the slightest noise or notification made him jump to his phone to check if he had really been sent a text like Tul said he would do. ‘it’s been three days Max, stop checking, he just said that to annoy you and you’ve fallen for it you dumbass’ Max thought to himself as he ignored everything Maeng had to say, he was in a little world of his own at this point.

“or...somebody... MAX ARE YOU SEEING SOMEBODY?!” Maengmum snapped, throwing off Max’s train of thought, making him drop his phone.

“HUH?! Me? Seeing somebody? The closest to a date I’ll get is checking the best before dates in the fridge” Max chuckled and leaned back into the chair again, jumping to grab his phone when there was a text sound.

 

 

**_Maengmum: WHO ARE YOU WAITING FOR A TEXT FROM?!_ **

 

 

Max glared when he saw that Maengmum had sent it, it wasn’t the person he expected, but at this point it was given that he wasn’t going to text him.

“Maeng, I’m not waiting on anybody texting me alright? I’m just waiting on a discount code for my class later, I need new supplies” Max wasn’t one for lying, but he really did need art supplies for the art class he took as a side class, he wasn’t going to straight up tell her that the guy that Olive was ready to fight several days prior was supposed to text him after he had given him his number. Max leaned back into his chair to take a sip at his coffee before it clicked, they knew he had given his number to Tul.

Now Max realised his mistake, Maengmum had also realised who he was waiting on. “NO!” she shouted and put her cup down, trying to lean over the table “first you give him your number, then you’re both alone in the changing rooms and now you’re waiting by the phone for him to text you!” Maengmum grabbed Max’s phone from his hand and tucked it down her top into her bra, knowing well enough that Max wouldn’t even DARE to try go down there to retrieve the phone.

“come on! Give me it Maeng” Max whined slightly as he extended his hand “I’m not waiting on him to text me, honestly!”

“no! I am NOT letting you get so whipped over a guy that’s literally DIRT, he is the Morphe Black shadow of men, he is the mango passion fruit Frappuccino of humans, He is...get ready to takes notes for this bit... TRASH!” Maeng snapped  “plus like hell am I getting left single like Olive, at least I’ve got you to talk to now, if you get a boyfriend, you’ll always be with them and I’ll look like a single hag, just minus the hag part because I’m STILL...the best looking girl of the faculty.” Maengmum smiled and fluttered her lashes only to receive a glare from Max.

“I’m not going to run off with anybody, I’m not trying to hook up with anybody, or get a boyfriend, I just wanna exist like a normal human for a while” Max watched as Olive walked out of the kitchen.

“OLIVE!” He yelled and waved his hand over to get her attention before he did a sign for phone and pushed his chest up as best as he could.

“gotcha!” Olive grinned and leaned over “retrieval mission, sorry for the inconvenience” Olive said shamelessly shoving her hand down Maengmum’s top to get the phone.

“OLIVE!” Maeng flailed slightly as slapped at her hand before covering herself with a cushion “I feel defiled!” She whined before sipping at her tea to calm down.

Max put his hand out for his phone but only got a slap on the side of the head instead. “what was that for?!”

“if you even think about hooking up with that bag of shit then I’ll take your phone and shove it somewhere worse than Maeng’s bra” Olive glared, her tone always made him shrink down.

“I- Yeah, okay I won’t just, give me it? I need it before I can go to my class” Max pleaded until the device was returned to its original owned “thank you!” Max grinned and jumped up to his feet to get ready for his art class. It wasn’t anything linked to his course work, this class wasn’t even run by the university, so not many people knew about him going, only his roommates and those who attended the class knew about it, other than that, everyone else he came across just pegged him as the single brain celled buff guy from engineering.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Once Max had finally gotten to class, he looked around at how everybody was setting up. “woah you’re early for once, what’s gotten into you?” His class mate Bas asked as he helped Max get his work space set up.

“Maeng and Olive were frying my braincells so I decided it’s better to get here early for once, it’s safer” Max laughed slightly as he pulled out the palettes he would be needing.

“really? You sure it has nothing to do with the model we have today?” Bas asked raising a brow. He knew Max usually came on time when there was a male model, but in all honesty, he had no idea what was going on today.

“what model?” Max asked as he set out his sketch equipment and water paints.

Bas glanced over his shoulder “did you not get the text on the group chat? We have a male full body model in today, why do you think Godt isn’t in today?” He asked and pointed over to the empty work space.

Max nodded, he knew a few men in the class didn’t exactly like sketching the male body, they acted childish as if drawing a man would ‘make them gay’. But Max fully enjoyed this style of art and it had nothing to do with the fact it was visually pleasing for him, because a lot of the time it wasn’t. He just enjoyed drawing bodies and appreciated the styling of them, not many people thought of it that way, with several female models, Max had to deal with men in the class hyping and just putting far too much emphasis on the breasts because that’s all they really cared for, perhaps he was just too mature to think of somebodies body as a visual item?

Max shrugged to his own thoughts before sorting his sketch book out on the easel, hearing the door of the room open and the classes tutor introducing the model, talking to them.

“You may start” The tutor spoke, and at this time Max pocked his head out to the side only to freeze up and point at the model, drawing attention to himself. “oh my god!” he blurted out through a slight burst of laughter before turning to apologise to the other artists for the disturbance.

Tul hesitated to turn at first when he recognised the persons voice. ‘sweet baby Jesus let this be a joke, please don’t be who I think it is’ He thought to himself before he locked eyes with the one person he wished wasn’t here.

“AH! YOU!” Tul snapped slightly as he tried to pull up the robe he had just dropped, a sudden feeling of awkward shyness took over him as he wanted to just cover himself. He wanted to roll up in a ball under his robe but knew he had signed up for this, he had to be professional about this, he couldn’t freak out at the slightest thing, besides, Max was just another guy.

He would have been alright with standing in a pose for such a long period of time if it wasn’t for the fact that every time the room fell silent, he could hear Max snickering and laughing to himself. ‘wait till I get my hands on that brat’ he thought to himself before looking at how focused he had become with his paper. ‘pfft I bet he can’t even draw, I bet it’s an ugly stick man...he’s an ugly stick man’ he bickered to himself before he shook his head and went back to posing.

Another twenty minutes had passed and he had found himself spacing out as he looked over at the back of Max’s sketch book or at his head that showed slightly over the top of the book before the sound of chuckling and laughing knocked him from spacing out, Max had caught him looking right at him.

“I think somebodies cold” Bas said as he leaned over to Max, making him laugh even louder, both artists referring to the fact that Tul had gotten hard whilst staring over at Max, it was normal for that to happen to male models, but Max only found it funnier because of it being Tul in this situation.

“why are you laughing?!” Tul whined as he had finally had enough, “stop laughing!” he scolded Max who fell silent but not because of Tul, the Tutor walked over and glared at Max then hushed Tul, warning him for the disturbances he had caused.

“I-Sorry...” Tul mumbled under his breath before he averted his eyes from Max, wondering why he was acting so childish beside the shorter male that was obviously his friend. ‘idiots.

 

* * *

 

 

Another two hours of agonisingly exhausting posing passed and thankfully Max had stopped laughing at Tul. The second Tul could move he rushed off to get changed and returned to the main studio, fixing the collar of his shirt, a little part of him was looking for Max, but he didn’t see him at the workspace he was at before.

‘wonder what he did’ Tul thought as he wandered over, since it seemed Max’s note book was the only one left in the whole studio.

As Tul walked over he made sure it was definitely Max’s drawing, if his jaw dropped any more then he’d probably have to scoop it off of the ground, he was gobsmacked, stuffed and shocked at how good the sketch was, it wasn’t painted like the others, and it wasn’t his full body either, just from his waist up, but just from what he could see, Tul knew it had to be the best in the full room. ‘damn it why couldn’t it look bad’ he didn’t want to be so moody when Max had done such an amazing job.

Tul remembered from reading in Max’s diary that he enjoyed art and sketching bodies, that he spent most of his time growing up drawing, and this if he could live off being an artist he would do that, he knew from how he wrote about his art that he was good at it, but he didn’t think he was THIS amazing at sketching.

As Tul was stood admiring the drawing, Max had noticed him and walked over “looks trashy doesn’t it?”

“Trashy? I can’t draw a stick figure right and you literally made THIS is such a short time? What the fuck?” Tul asked as he pointed to the drawing.

“I screwed up on the lips mainly. your hair lines uneven, your chest isn’t the right size, and erm...my drawings kind of the same actually” Max chuckled and nudged his elbow into Tul “come on I’m just gonna scrap it later, don’t get too hung up about the drawing” Max replied as he turned away to fix his bag.

“don’t! it looks perfect, If I could draw like that I’d never be without a pencil and paper” Tul responded as he stopped Max from pulling the page out of the book, grabbing onto his hand as he did so.

“I’ll keep the drawing if you answer one question” Max huffed out.

“sure, ask away”

“why did you say you’d text me if you weren’t planning on doing it?” Max wasn’t THAT bothered, he just wanted to know why he was so annoying.

Tul looked up and cringed slightly as he opened his phone, it wasn’t the same as the phone he had at the gym, and he had seriously meant to note it down and text him.

“shit...listen I got a new phone and I seriously meant to take note of your number, but I... I lost it, and I tried to text you, but it was constantly wrong numbers and- I just don’t have your number anymore.” Tul said apologetically towards Max who only huffed as he shut his notebook.

“too bad I don’t give my number out twice” Max grumbled as he continued to clear up.

“come on.” Tul frowned as he held his phone out “why won’t you put It in yourself then? So, you know if I don’t text you later then it’s all my fault and you can tell everybody on campus about the nude model with the small dick”

“small?” Max questioned, looking at his phone before taking it after much debate and putting his number in “there, if you don’t text me, I’ll give Maengmum your number” he said as a better threat.

“shit, yeah, I... okay” Tul grumbled before looking around the room, realising it was only the two of them.

“I should head off, is somebody picking you up? Or...?” Max questioned as he took his own car keys from his pockets and shook them slightly.

“uh, uh... lemmie call somebody” Tul smiled slightly but as he flicked open his contacts the phones battery died. “just my luck” he huffed “I’ll walk back, my place isn’t too far from here.”

“nah it’s raining and dark, plus you don’t even have a jacket, let me drop you off.”  Max offered as he started to walk to the main door.

Tul shook his head “seriously it’s no issue at a- oh shit!” he snapped as he saw how serious the rain was.

Max laughed lightly at the others reaction before grabbing at his wrist “come on, I’ll drop you off” He said with the same goofy smile on his face that was always there when he laughed.

“eugh alright, but my apartment isn’t the closest to this building you know”

“you said it was, so you’re lying to me now too? Wow, you’re so nice!” Max said sarcastically before he got into the car.

“Hey what if you wanted to find out where I lived just so you could kill me? Huh? I’m just trying to stay safe and alive” Tul laughed slightly as he buckled in.

“but you got into a moving car with me anyway?”

“I trust you enough not to kill me” Tul said as he looked over at Max, both smiling and just talking casually through the whole ride before Max finally reached the area in which Tul had directed him to.

“please tell me I took a wrong turn” Max grumbled as he looked at the area that was beyond familiar.

“huh? No, this one’s my building, how? What’s wrong with it?” Tul questioned as he looked around and undid his seat belt.

“nothing it’s just...” Max got out of the car and pointed to the opposite building “this is my building”

“no way! So, we’ve probably seen each other around before formally meeting?” Tul asked as he didn’t believe how close they lived. “anyway, uh, thanks for the lift and erm, for your number” he smiled slightly before saying his goodbyes.

“alright see you later” Max waved him off before he made his way up to his own apartment that thankfully was empty, like always.

 

* * *

 

 

Max wandered around to make food and coffee before sitting out on his balcony to finish the details on the sketch he had started earlier at his class, but his concentration was broken when his phone kept pinging loudly

 

 

**_Tul: Told you I’d Text you :P_**  


**_Tul: Maybe I should call you just to make sure you know I’m not just another guy called Tul._ **

 

 

Max smiled and shook his head ‘what an idiot’ he said to himself before he went back to sketching, his phone ringing shortly after.

“hello?”

“It’s Tul...”

“oh, you said you were gonna call” Max responded as he put his phone on loud speaker so he could continue to sketch

“yeah, I know, but I also texted you and you didn’t text back, I do have the correct Max, right? The arty muscular dork that likes to sing Disney in the shower” Tul grinned as he wanted to tease him.

“hmm I dunno, is this the sissy model from today’s art class?”

“oh, shut up, yeah it’s me” Tul huffed but as he spoke, he had a large smile on his face.

“Well it’s me too, I didn’t text back because I’m actually finishing my sketch” Max responded

“oooo is it the one of me?”

“maybe...”

“can I see when it’s done?” Tul asked contently.

“maybe...no... we’ll see- Tul is your phone speaker screwed? I’m getting a bad echo of my own voice through your phone.”

“yeah I was going to mention that I have an echo on this end too...” Tul lowered the phone from his ear as he looked out over his balcony.

“NO FUCKING WAY!” Tul shouted over as he saw Max sitting on his balcony in the building across from him sketching.

Max heard Tuls voice but glared when it didn’t come from the voice, slowly he poked his head over the balcony wall and saw Tul waving over, there wasn’t even ten meters between their balcony’s.

“WE LIVE ACROSS FROM ONE ANOTHER?!” Max snapped slightly as he looked around ‘oh god’


	5. Chapter 5

“MAX!” Maengmum screeched from her place on the couch, like always her feet were up on the table, placed delicately so she didn’t smudge her freshly polished nails. A cup of herbal Tea was in one hand whilst her phone was in the other. Her voice was becoming more and more like nails on a blackboard as the days went on.

“what?!” Max swung his head around harshly, his body following as he slouched where he stood, knowing like always he would be lectured for going out, she acted like a parent and it had seriously become disturbing with how much she was sounding like her.

“You spent almost an hour on that balcony and now you’re trying to sneak out? Care to tell me who this time?”

“I was just talking to...myself out on the balcony, and I... I’m going to get snacks...for...Good. Talk to him about this not me.” Max was seriously the worst liar around, you could see through his lies as if he was plastic wrap, that’s how terrible he was.

“You’re seriously going to lie to my face?” Maengmum stood up, hobbling on her heels to protect her nails until she got over to Max, glaring and eyeing him up to intimidate him, which was working, Max was shrinking further and further back from the chihuahua of a woman.

“I’m not lie- “Max fell silent when he saw the that Olive had given Maeng a tip off that He was going to be sneaking out with Tul again.

“Fine! fine, I’m going to meet Tul, is that such a problem? Huh? We’re friends, friends hang out, friends talk and meet up. Friends also don’t stop other friends from meeting the third-party friend.” Max huffed as he turned to slide his shoes on.

“fine, but a friend wouldn’t ignore and blow off all plans with their original friends because a piece of eye candy has come around, understand me?” Maengmum only grumbled and hobbled back to the couch.

“go- Just go. You seem to be enjoying his company more, but when he turns on you, just remember that Good, olive and I are gonna be here for you when you take that big fall. Just if you get hurt. Don’t blame us because we warned you.” Maeng was serious for once, she didn’t sound like a whiney over protective mother at this moment in time, she sounded like a concerned friend that just wanted what was best for him.

“I’ll be alright maeng, I’m not a kid” Max grumbled before turning to the door and leaving to meet Tul. Thinking about what she said. ‘I’m not going to get hurt, I’m not invested in anyway, romantically or emotionally, so this isn’t a problem at all, it’s just two friends hanging out’ he told himself.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Tul was stood waiting for Max at the same place they had met up at for the past three weeks in a row, to begin with Tul had said it was because his friends group would catch them hanging out anywhere else and that wouldn’t end well for anybody, but now the pair met up at the exact place almost every day for  full week just because they enjoyed hanging out with one another.

Their routine was simple, they waited on the balcony, mainly because they would be busy talking on their phones. Then after a while something ‘came up’ or one of them ‘forgot something’ or just something as simple as them leaving to hang out with a friend. And by the style and choice of area, it was more than obvious Tul had chosen to hang out here.

The area was just a group of old buildings that Tul found incredibly easy to run around and climb on, he would constantly ask Max if he wanted to join.

“who knows you might enjoy it!” Tul would always respond when Max would explain that he preferred to keep his feet on flat ground where man was intended to be.

Today the weather wasn’t the best, yet again it hadn’t been good for the past several meetings, at least it wasn’t raining again, but it had been which was unfortunate, still Tul climbed the same buildings, going higher and higher each time to show off to max.

Once Max had finally arrived in their usual meeting spot, he grumbled in annoyance at their being no sign of Tul anywhere “I swear to god I’m early once and he’s not here yet, what’s even the point” he said with a huff before feeling a hard ‘THUMP’ on his back from Tul leaping from one of the ledges above onto Max’s back.

“you? EARLY? I doubt that’ll ever happen” Tul grinned and pinched at Max’s cheek before climbing off his back, well it was more like Max threw him.

“huh? Asshole! You could have given me a heart attack!” Max huffed out as he pressed a hand over his chest only to have Tul grab at it.

“well I didn’t ... so since your heart seems stronger today will you please! Come join me up there today?” Tul asked as he pointed to the highest set of ledges that were still intact.

“like hell am I going anywhere remotely near that, if you’re wanting to spend the full of today all the way up there then I’m going back to sit through Maeng grilling me.” Max shrugged simply and snatched his hand back only for Tul to grab at his hand again.

“no! no... I’ll stay on the ground again, stay” Max grinned in triumph, succeeding to keep Tul on his level for once. “what was she grilling you about this time?” Tul proceeded to ask as he sat down on the wall.

“just the same stuff, she hates that I’m hanging out with you, actually I just think she hates you in general. Your group? The fact you breath up her oxygen supply?” Max supplied many suggestions as to why Maengmum would hate Tul but Tul only shook his head, he knew exactly why she hated him, she was protective over her friends, and Max seemed close enough to be a brother to her.

“perhaps she’s jealous that she doesn’t have a skinny ratio on Instagram” Tul teased and took his phone out “speaking of Instagram...” he trailed off as he opened his front facing camera.

“what? No- no chance” Max said covering his face the second he saw the camera. “are you stupid? Your friends will see and wonder why you’re hanging out with me” He nudged him only for Tul to grab his arm and show his face.

“so what? I’ll put up with anything they question about me, plus you make a good addition to my photos” he said poking at Max’s cheek to make him smile before quickly taking the photo.

Max glared but smiled slightly when Tul wouldn’t stop poking at his cheeks “alright, alright...idiot” Max tutted as he turned his head away finally.

“an idiot that can make you smile” Tul grinned then put his hand out as he stood up on the wall. “come on, climb the first wall at LEAST” he asked with a pout.

“Tul I’m not going up there.”

“for me?”

“N-O” He mouthed before getting up from the wall “climb all you want, as high as you want, just stop pestering me, I don’t like the idea of being up so high with no safety net.” He admitted, he wasn’t going to come out and say he was terrified of being up heights, but he was going to give every reason not to go up.

“you’re scared” Tul said with a Cheshire cat like grin on his face.

“I- I am... I’m not!” Max turned away. “anyway, change the topic. When I called you earlier, somebody was shouting at you? What was that all about?” He asked with a raised brow.

“It was Tay...he was scolding me for going out so much”

“really? Where does he think you are today?”

“he knows I’m hanging out with you, he’s the only one that knows” Tul said as he set off up the first ledge.

Max looked up quickly, his group already knew?! He was doomed at this point. “what?” he snapped slightly “your group knows? Tul you know that’s gonna cause so much shit!” Max didn’t want a stressful life in university, he just wanted to pass his classes and get a decent job.

“it’s just Tay! He’s fine, Aim and Godt? They’re bitter old hags, Tay’s fine, he never gets involved in any time the others push people around, he’s just there” This calmed Max’s nerves slightly but not to the extent in which he would have liked. “plus, don’t tell a soul, but Tay’s dating a guy from the year bellow us” Tul added and looked down at Max, pressing his finger to his lips.

“really? Secrets safe with me then, then why was he really shouting at you? For just going out to meet me?”

“no- He was telling me off for how I treat you in class and the gym, he told me if I can’t act nice or at least be passive in uni then to not even bother talking to you ever” Tul grumbled and kept climbing. He was told several times by Tay to stay away from Max not for his own gain but to better Max, to stop annoying him and upsetting him, aggravating him, which was why Tul avoided Max most in classes, so his group didn’t start their usual antics.

“your friend sounds smart” Max laughed slightly as he scuffed his shoes along the ground to hit the stones in his path.

“yeah...wait! hey are you saying we should stop being friends?!” Tul glanced down to see Max smiling up at him.

“no- I’m saying that he’s smart for scolding you so much, your group, they havn6en’t annoyed me for a full week now.”

“oh, well...that’s all my doing” Tul stood up and looked around for the next ledge. “plus” Tul started to speak before running out and leaping over the gap, as his foot left the ledge, it crumbled slightly, causing him to lose his footing. Max had warned him countless times that one on6f these days he’d go through the ledge instead of over it, and this time he did.

Max glanced up at the scraping noise and watched in horror as Tul fell. It would have been fine if it was from his usual ledge which was only a few meters up, but this wasn’t the case. Tul had gotten cocky and went up another ledge, up the height of three floors. Watching him fall, Max felt like his heart stopped, a part of him wanted to just scold him and yell at how stupid he was, but another part of him just wanted to make sure he was going to be okay, if he was going to be okay.

Tul just went into a state of shock, not shouting, yelling or even panicking, just...falling... like he had accepted how dumb he really had been and didn’t bother to act against it.

“TUL!” Max shouted as he rushed to under the ledge, extending his arms as if he had any hope of catching him. His heart pounding as fast as his feet on the ground.

 Max luckily caught him, but his legs completely gave way upon the sudden addition of pressure of a whole adult body. He hit the ground just as fast as Tul would have, shutting his eyes tightly as he tried to hold back from letting out any sound related to how painful his leg was.

Tul blinked his eyes open to see why he hadn’t died, why he wasn’t inn any pain from hitting the ground, and why Max was so silent. Slowly, and still in a state of shock, Tul turned to see Max lying on the ground underneath him.

“max? Max?!” Tul slapped at his chest quickly and it was like the panic finally set in “oh my god say something!” He shook his shoulders frantically.

There was the almost inaudible mumble of Max’s voice but Tul just couldn’t understand him “what?” Max mumbled again “max speak up I can’t hear you!” he spoke as he leaned down to hear him better, his ear practically pressed to his lips.

“Is it a bad time to ask did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” Max asked quietly, the other sitting up quickly and seeing Max’s smudge expression “you asshole!” he punched at his shoulders. “I thought I killed you!” Tul said again as Max sat up to look at him.

Tul was beyond upset at this point, and Max noticed this, feeling Tul’s hands on his cheeks as his head was turned from left to right, tilted up then down. Max watched intently, seeing how Tul’s eyes practically scanned over his full body, checking him repeatedly.

With a soft laugh Max scratched at the back of his neck “I’m fine, honestly...you know if I didn’t know any better, I’d assume that you’ve started caring about me” he spoke with a grin.

“CARE? PHAH! No...” Tul stood quickly, his foot hitting into Max’s leg making the injured male since.

“a-ah!”

“what?” Tul asked as he extended a hand to help him up.

“uuuuh...nothing I just- “As Max stood his leg completely gave way, stumbling over his own foot, he fell into Tul who held him up.

“what-what happened to your leg?” Max didn’t want to have to blame him but that’s what was going to happen if he opened him mouth.

“nothing”

“don’t lie to me, you’re worse at lying than you are catching people.” He warned, hearing a childish whine from Max.

“fine...I’ve just hurt my leg, that’s all, probably just twisted an ankle, nothing more, nothing less.” He sighed “you should get back...”

“like hell!” Tul snapped “I’m taking you to get this checked out” Tul said, taking most of the weight.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Max whined, complained and winced like a child the ENTIRE time, telling Tul his friends would find out they were hanging out or people would question why the two were hanging out in the quiet sides of town.

“I don’t care” Tul replied every time, he didn’t care about the complaints, but he did care for Max.

When They finally got to the campus nurse...Aim... Tul handed Max over reluctantly, but luckily enough Aim was professional before she was bitchy.

Max glanced over his shoulder where Tul was stood with his items in hand, grumbling at the idea of being checked over by Aim after he was able to avoid her group for so long ‘he’s an idiot’ he told himself whilst entering the examination room of the nurses department. The most unsettling thing was that most of the nurses were training university nurses, so hardly any of them, apart from the seniors, HAD full qualifications. He always found that strange, but the work experience was part of their course.

Tul finally sat down in the waiting room, his and Max’s items still bundled in his arms. Soon enough he had placed them onto the chair beside him, his attention drawn to the sketch book Max had brought with him, he had brought it every time they hung out, but Tul never got to look at the drawings after each day, he questioned why but yet again no answer were ever give...well now was his time for a quick sneak peek.

‘Why does he just draw buildings and flowers? Is this man studying engineering or architecture’ he asked as the drawings in the sketch book varied from drawings of flowers, to the old building Tul liked to climb on, well not anymore he didn’t?

The more pages he flicked through, the less and less was drawn, the pages were no longer filled with small sketches and ideas, instead it was just outlines, shadows, features and such, something familiar about it all. When he reached the last quarter of the book it became obvious where he had seen these features before...they were his own, the drawings Max created when they hung out was of Tul, from when he hung from ledges, messed around on the walls or that time he got stuck in a tree after jumping from a lower ledge.

On the final page that was sketched on Tul had noticed the drawing was incomplete, it was a rough sketch of him smiling once he had reached the top ledge. “gross” Tul joked slightly, a smile stuck on his face, a look he just couldn’t shake.

Glancing up from the sketch book, Tul noticed the door opening finally, Max leaving first with a limp. ‘Dammit he seriously did screw his leg, up didn’t he?’ Tul thought to himself as he checked on him but was abruptly pulled aside by Aim who was looking over the whole situation with a steady glare.

“Tul...What are you doing with him? And how exactly did he hurt himself? He wouldn’t speak to me.” Aim said with a slight huff, Max at this point was sitting sketching again, Tul knew what he was sketching and couldn’t help but smile.

“we uh...we’re hanging out...friends...” Tul expected to be scolded in a crude and harsh way but was slapped on the arm.

“finally, do you know how annoying it is putting up with you and Earth acting so childish and crude towards him? Now tell me what happened”

“I... wait what? You’re not angry at me?” Tul asked “you don’t hate him? You’re so bitchy to him though?” Tul questioned as he stepped back to make sure he was talking to Aim and not a twin from another universe.

“I’m bitchy to everyone you dipshit, I’ve got nothing against who he is or who he likes. Not like you and Godt seem to have “Aim replied before hitting Tul with her note book again “now, explanation NOW!”

“ouch! Fine! I was climbing the old building behind campus but a ledge snapped when I tried to jump, Max legit used his head to catch me but I think he came down and hurt his leg, it’s not broken is it?” he asked, obviously it wasn’t broken, but he wasn’t exactly the wisest.

“broken? No...” Aim scoffed “he wouldn’t be walking Tul, did you even pay attention back in sports medicine? or did you just sleep? Hmm? He ruptured an old leg injury, it’ll take some time to heal but if it gets worse take him to the hospital, since I don’t get access to old records and he doesn’t talk.”

“old? What old injury?”

“you don’t know? You’re in sports! Max used to be on the campus football team back in year one but somebody from the opposing team wore boots that were banned for on pitch, when they tackled him it partially snapped his shin? You SERIOUSLY don’t know about this?” Aim asked dumbfounded at how little Tul knew.

“what? He was in the others team?” That only explained why Tul recognised Max, he was the year one accident that caused there to be an on-campus sports nurse team.

“wow you’re literally all muscle no brains, get him home, get him to stay off his leg, and I won’t mention this to Godt, alright?” Aim warned and hit him with the notebook again when he wasn’t moving.

Tul nodded and cringed at the idea of breaking a shin, a wave of sickness hitting him at the very thought.

“Could she hit you any harder with that book?” Max asked with a gentle laugh.

“huh? Oh- yeah...she probably could” Tul chuckled then helped Max outside, the apartment was close by so thankfully they didn’t have to walk far.

 

* * *

 

 

“so...your leg?” Tul asked, breaking the silence.

“my leg? It’s trashed, but it’s alright you can make it up to me later” Max nudged him before he kept walking or hobbling with his crutch.

“erm, No, I mean what happened to your leg originally.” Tul spoke as he looked up at Max who now lowered his head.

“that proves you didn’t read enough of my diary like you said you did, or you’d know” Max shrugged. “it’s nothing serious, I had gotten in a bad relationship with one of the guys from the opposite team back in year one. Then on the pitch he kicked me, his boot was solid at the tip and it just snapped the bone, so I don’t do sports anymore...not like I used to anyway.” Max sighed, his full life was sports, he intended to study that, but his parents weren’t proud of his decision.

“Was that why you didn’t climb the wall with me?”

“no I knew you were an idiot, it got better, I could run for a while, I can work out at the gym, but too much presser just cripples me” Max admitted “my bone had metal pins put in to try hold it since the bone is fragile, but they seemed to have slipped and let the bone move.” Max frowned a little at the thought of going back to how he used to be.

“hey...stop looking so down, you’ve got me here to do dumb stuff with you, so you don’t hurt your leg, even though me doing dumb stuff was the thing that hurt your...leg” Max glared slightly at Tul’s comment before laughing.

“why did you help me back?” Max asked as Tul helped him up to his apartment.

“I told you before. I care about you...is that so bad?” Tul mumbled as they approached his front door.

“no? but can guys really care for one another in the way they care for sisters?” Max asked.

“they can... depends how you care for them” Tul grumbled and leaned on the door frame. “promise me you’ll take care of yourself?”

“since when did you start acting this protective?” Max was just confused at this point and kept his eyes to the door which he was about to open.

“since I felt bad for what happened to your leg? I dunno” Tul patted his shoulder and as his hand touched Max’s shoulder the door swung open, both Max and Tul jumping and screaming at the sudden sight of the short blob of hair with a bright green face.

“Ah! Shit Maeng! you scared us both to death!” Max whined.

“I scared? YOU TWO? Oh no! have you seen the time? Have you checked your phone? have you seen that we’ve been trying to call you?! And what’s happened to your leg?!” Maengmum snapped several questions out at once before bluntly turning to look at Tul.  “YOU DID THIS?!”

Throwing his hands up in defence, Tul swore down that he didn’t hit him. Yet Maeng still raged like an angry bull, her shouting got so bad that Max had to step in between them.

“Maeng! please, I’m tired, can you just help me set up my bed?” Max asked and just like that Maeng was holding the door open, screaming for Olive’s help.

“you better go, Olive will kill you” Max laughed slightly.

“yeah I will...you better rest up okay? Text me if you need anything, like at all... even if it’s just a muse for drawing” he grinned and pressed the sketch book to Max’s chest.

Max glanced down at his book knowing now that Tul had taken a sneak peek “hmm...whatever, whatever, just go” Max hit his ankle with his crutch to chase him off which luckily worked before Olive walked out.


	6. Chapter 6

“Don’t you want us to stay? I’m serious, we can do that, we can have a night out at any point, like it’s just Olive’s birthday, she has one like EVERY year, it’s getting kind of repetitive actually, we gotta see that it stops” Maengmum huffed as she leaned on the door frame glancing at Max who had now been resting for a whole week and yet his leg had Not gotten any better.

“Maeng!” Good hissed and elbowed her slightly in the rib for speaking the way she did.

“what? You’re telling me that these birthday gatherings aren’t getting boring? look at Max, poor boys even ruptured his knee to get out of it!” Maengmum huffed as she stomped on Goods foot in revenge for her side being elbowed, forgetting completely that she was wearing high heels.

Max huffed out a laugh when Good let out an almost silent scream, it was practically a squeak. “Maeng- I didn’t almost destroy my chances of walking ever again just because of Olive’s birthday being boring.”

“but you do admit it’s boring?!” Maengmum grinned

“of course! She’s got the party taste of a 90-year-old woman...” Maeng laughed in Good’s face as Max agreed.

“you’re supposed to be a good role model for her!” Good whined as he tugged at Maeng’s shirt.

“no, I’m supposed to be crippled right now, Role model wasn’t in the job description when an idiot fell from the sky onto my legs” Max grumbled before looking at the pair looking at him as if waiting for an answer for something.

“so?” Maeng said as she slipped one shoe on “should we stay in or?”

“just go! Seriously I shouldn’t have to baby sit you like this, go have fun, get drunk, fall in the door at am with your hair stuck to your lip-gloss, just leave me be” Max whined and threw a couch cushion at the now closing door.

Max leaned back on the couch slightly, the room was silent, not just the room, the house, completely silent for the first time in months. He had stored his sketch pad on the table beside him as he wanted to just relax and finish some art for his class that he hadn’t had the peace and quiet to do so.

The second his finger touched the booklet his phone rang ‘I swear to god this thing has a tracker on it or something, knows when to kill the silence” he huffed as he answered the phone.

“for the millionth time Maeng just go out- “Max’s words were cut short by a voice that certainly wasn’t Maengmum.

“Maengmum? I mean if that’s who you imagine me as then alright”

‘Shit...’ Max whined to himself, it was Tul on the other end of the phone, he just didn’t check the caller ID.

“no- I thought you were maeng asking if I need company” Max huffed slightly as he sat up from the couch to try get the balcony but there was no chance of him walking that far on his own.

“so, you ARE all alone tonight? I heard that it was Olive’s birthday, but I didn’t think they would all go out and leave you” Tul tutted as he rested the phone on his shoulder as his hands were full.

“yeah? Why?” Max glanced up to hear a knock at the door “that’s some serial killer stuff right there, I’m not opening that door”

Tul let out a slight laugh, it was nice when he laughed because his laugh was so goofy sounding. “I’m not here to kill you, plus I doubt you can get to the door, just say come in?”

“if you know my doors open then just wander in yourself”

“I’m trying to have manners here Max”

“you have the same amount of manners as a mule, just open the door” The pair had been hanging out almost every single day, tul had been making up dumb excuses about class just so he could see Max, but Max was none the wiser whilst every other person in the house definitely knew.

“a mule?!” Max exclaimed as he looked over at the door and huffed. “Open it yourself for that comment dipshit” He grumbled and sunk back into his place in the couch, hanging up quickly so Tul had no choice but to open the door or stan in the hallway like an idiot.

And soon enough the door did open. Max looked over his sketch pad to see Tul stood at the door with both hands occupied by bags. ‘maybe he actually couldn’t open the door properly?’ max questioned before sitting up right, quickly looking over the bags,

“what’s...Erm...What’s all this?” Max asked, still unable to get up from his chair.

“well, you seemed lonely, so...I brought snacks” Tul smiled and waved the bags before looking at Max’s leg “why is it wrapped up even more than when I last saw you?!” Tul exclaimed as he dropped the bags on the table causing Max to jump slightly and bang his leg.

“I fell over the table last night, Maeng got overprotective and used the whole first aid kit to ‘patch’ my leg up, I look like a budget Tutankhamun.” Max complained before leaning over to peek into the bag.

“well she’s got the right idea; I would have wrapped you in bubble wrap and left you in your bed until you were better.” Tul laughed at Maeng’s attempt of wrapping a bandage, if his leg needed re-wrapped, he could have easily asked for Aim.

“no, if I’m gonna hurt myself then let it happen” he tutted then continued to pull the food from the bag. Whilst raiding through the snacks, Max came across a huge bundle of things he liked, in fact the majority of items here were foods he enjoyed. “how’d you know to pick this stuff up?!” Max smiled as he practically flung himself backwards with a packet of sweets in one hand.

“I knew because you talk about the stuff you like all the time” Tul shrugged as he wandered around cleaning up any of the mess left around, besides hanging out with Max, he felt bad for causing the damage to his leg, so he helped him keep on top of class work and house work. “plus, they’re my favourites too” he said as he threw a cushion towards Max.

“Really? Hmm well if you know so much, do you know WHY they’re my favourite snacks?” Max questioned as he waved the freshly opened packet at Tul who only pushed them away, allowing Max to eat as much as he wanted.

“you mentioned your mum loved them? Or something like that” Tul honestly didn’t know at this point, he remembered the dumb things like what his favourite flavour of pasta sauce was, not important details like why his mother had an important link to overly sugary sweets.

“yeah, I wasn’t allowed to eat these when I was little, but my mother non-stop would sneak me them without my dad getting angry, when she passed I? I dunno I just eat them all the time now since she isn’t here to sneak them to me you know?” Max shrugged and moved to the side when Tul sat beside him.

There was a slight awkward silence before Tul ruffled his hand into the packet and shoved a sweet straight into Max’s mouth “can I be the one that sneaks them too you yet? Or am I not important enough for that yet?”

“hmm, I dunno, you might need to sneak me another to find out” Max stuck his tongue out then grinned when Tul did just that.

“you’re such a mummy’s boy, did I ever tell you that? You always talk about not being able to do things, so you always got your mum to do them for you, such a pampered mummy’s boy” Tul teased but Max only smiled brightly

“what’s so wrong with that? Of course, I was a major Mummy’s boy, I was a chunky kid that liked food more than I liked myself, the only person I had for a friend was my mum” Max shrugged and shoved more sweets into his mouth.

“that’s so sad” Tul huffed a small laugh “well you’ve got me as your friend now, so even if you reverse back to your chunky pampered boy form, you’ll have me” Tul put his pinkie up to make a promise. Tul didn’t really have anybody besides his group, and even then, he didn’t really hang out with them unless it was during the days, they all had classes.

“if I seal this pinkie promise you gotta promise to tell nobody about my mum” Max said, and by his tone, Tul knew he was being serious.

“about the pampered baby boy thing?”

“no about the fact she isn’t here anymore, if somebody used that against me, I’d probably snap, it’s the only thing I wouldn’t handle.” Max admitted “I hate when people aren’t here to defend themselves you know? Plus, Maeng doesn’t even know...it’s just you” Max said before sitting back to eat his snacks contently.

 

* * *

 

 

After about an hour so of the two chatting and eating sugared snacks, Tul finally got nosy and looked over at what Max had been stressing over this entire time. “What ya drawing?” Tul asked as he leaned over as saw a sketch of himself. “huh...that’s...me?” He smiled.

“yeah but erm, I’ve got your features all wrong, your nose looks normal here, and your ego...totally untraceable” Max said before feeling Tul nudge him at his teasing. “alright alright, your nose isn’t THAT weird”

“oh yeah? Says the one with the weird leg” Tul whined and nudged his book “if you’re struggling so badly with your drawing, why don’t you just draw me whilst I’m here? It’s not like I haven’t modelled for you before” Tul noted as he finally slid his coat off and sat comfortably across from Max.

“uhhh...I dunno...I” Max shrugged in response, any time he tried to draw Tul it seemed to go incredibly wrong or they got distracted. It was like the universe was telling him to just stop drawing him, which wasn’t going to happen any time soon. “Fine, Fine, but only because your features are good” Max said whilst pointing his pencil at him.

 

Soon enough they were sat side by side as Max scribbled and doodled Tul’s features, Tul smiling contently as the two of them spoke “so, do I get to hear about your coming out? Or is that too personal?”

“you legit saw my dick in the shower room at the gym, nothing is too personal anymore” Max replied with a hearty laugh. “but fine, it’s not something huge or scandalous though so prepare to be bored” He added as he kept his attention on the sketch pad.

“I never get bored when you talk so that’ll be a first” Tul pulled a cushion onto his lap to prop himself up.

“you’re gross” Max made mock sick sounds before looking back at the sketch pad. “I came out to my mum before anybody else, Then Maengmum, then Olive and Good, of course by the time Maengmum knew everyone knew because she was hell bent on trying to set me up with any other gay male she could find, it got annoying.”

“but when you came out? Was it awkward? Was it hard? Did you get scared?” Tul leaned forward as he asked him.

“awkward? Yes, I avoided my dad the whole day so I could speak to my mum, but he just kept lingering around. Hard? Incredibly, I turned around to my mother and told her that her only son would never carry on the family name and that name died with me, she was devastated... scared? I watched some of my best friends be thrown out on the street for loving who they wanted, I wasn’t just scared, I was terrified...” Max admitted as he sunk into the chair.

Tul frowned, Max seemed so confident with his sexuality, so he had never actually questioned how he was feeling or how he felt in the beginning. “how did you come out to your mother? What age? What did you even say?”

“I told her the same night I had my first kiss I enjoyed the kiss and I enjoyed myself, but the guilt began to eat at me so I legit rushed hope to my mum. I remember searching the house and being relieved to find out that my dad was out for the night. I ran into my mum, I must have only been 16 or 17 when I stumbled into her room all snotty nosed and teary eyed like a dumb little boy, she shouted at me for wiping my nose on her bed too, I mean what teenage boy does that? I told her that I was different, I told her I didn’t want her to hate me and I told her that I knew I was disgusting, that I wasn’t good enough to be her son, that I was so gross, I was selfish...but she just hugged me and promised me that I wasn’t any of those things, she held me until I stopped crying, she told me what I was wasn’t disgusting but beautiful and that I was special and that I had nothing to cry about, but she also told me never to tell my dad...she told me to tell my closest friends, those I could trust and over time others found out, my mum passed as the hate got really bad and I didn’t even have her to comfort me anymore, but I was 17, I had to handle myself, so I did...I stopped caring about the hate and listened to her advice, I wasn’t any of those things people called me” Max hadn’t ever told anybody his coming out story before.

Tul sat listening to every word closely “your mum sounded amazing”

“she was” Max sighed then looked up “you don’t plan on ever coming out, do you?” he asked with a raised brow.

“who? Me? Hah... even if I wanted to, I couldn’t, I’ve got a social status, an angry family back home, a lot of people that would snitch if I finally did come out... it’s not too simple.” Tul shrugged “I wish it was”

“you’ve told me, that’s a step, forward right?” Max asked and put the notebook down showing the complete sketch.

Like always Tul was in awe at his skills “you legit have Michael Angelo in your hands, Gay art god blood runs through your veins” He gulped and looked at the semi realistic yet minimalistic sketch.

“it’s just basic, it the base sketch...give me a few hours and I’ll do better” Max said only to feel a punch in his arm.

Tul pulled the sketch pad his way quickly and looked at it “better? Do better? I draw as well as a worm...my art Is DIRT...how? why? Why are you in engineering? you can create art like this!” he flailed the book which succeeded in making Max smile.

“I...err.” Max only shrugged in response, the reason was stupid “my parents wanted me to do this, not art” He said as he took the sketch book back and closed it over.

“your parents or just your dad?” Tul questioned and knew the answer straight away when Max sat awkwardly, not answering “knew it” Tul huffed slightly “you’re the last person I expected to be whipped” he admitted as he threw one of the sweets at Max.

“You’d be surprised” Max rolled his eyes and threw the book to the side, raising his hand to point at the games console on the computer table “enough of this soppy shit, I’m stuck in the house not able to have fun, doesn’t mean you have to bore me to death...let’s play a video game or something” He hardly had time to play consoles which truly showed how bored he really was.

“fine, Fine...you really kill the moment y’know”

“can’t kill the moment if it wasn’t a moment in the first place, not hand me the player one controller maid” Max stuck his tongue out after speaking when he noticed Tul turning to glare at him, his glares were never intense and definitely not intimidating, it was like a puppy trying to be mad at you, it was more comically cute than threatening...Not that Max viewed him like that. That, being cute of course.

 

* * *

 

 

To start with the pair both quietly played video games, open lan worlds, Split screens and such, then Max made probably the worst decision man had ever made. He had chosen for them both to player Mortal combat, so as you can tell within the first hour or so, the two were shouting and arguing over petty things.

“button smasher!” Tul shouted at Max as he tried to distract him.

“oh, that’s rich coming from somebody who’s done nothing but smash A and X over and over for the past fifteen minutes, stop your button smashing and fight me like a man you coward.” Max replied as he played intently.

“like a man? I’m chun-li! That’s literally impossible for me to fight like a man!” Tul whined.

“that’s what you get for picking basic characters” Max teased in return.

“basic? Oh, sure Sub Zero, Sure I’M the basic one” Tul huffed out but when he decided to stop hitting the same buttons over and over, he really had no chance of winning, he didn’t know the combos as well as Max.

Glancing to the side slightly, Tul smiled and mover his arms to cover Max’s eyes, holding on as long as he could.

“Cheater!” Max shouted from behind the arms that mumbled his voice.

“I am n-NOT!” Tul tried to speak but Max shoved him with his whole strength to the side, looking down at him from where they were sat.

Tul gulped, lying with his back flat on the couch as he looked up at Max who had lost his balance and fell onto him. Both of them laughed like idiots, the game still in standby on the screen.

Neither of them spoke or sat up, which would be the given thing to do in this situation, but instead of motion, the room fell silent. The pair where no longer smiling. Neither frowned, there wasn’t even an ounce of anger evoked at the time, it was just silent and calm.

Max looked down at Tul, feeling a slight tightness in his chest as he observed the male below him ‘god not him, of all people’ he thought to himself.

Tul leaned up slightly ‘this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done’ he thought to himself, but he was still leaning up more and more, as he me eyes with Max who OBVIOUSLY looked at his lips, was It a heat of the moment thing? was this something he had thought about before? Was he doing something bad? Or was he just doing what he felt was right. He only questioned himself and the other intentions for the short amount of time before they were close. Their intentions were clear.

Max met Tul’s eyes once before letting his eyes slowly close, instead of feeling Tul’s lips against his own, the pair were quickly brought to alert at the sound of the door clattering. Upon looking up they both witnessed Good fall through the door face first, hitting the ground with his full weight, babbling like a drunken idiot.

‘now this is killing the mood’ Max thought as he quickly sat away from Tul, clearing his throat and looking away awkwardly as if the thing that almost happened DIDN’T almost happen.

Maengmum followed in, for once she wasn’t drunk, but the birthday girl wrapped around her ankles which she slid across the ground was.

“I think I need to set some rules about visitors.” Maeng glared then looked between the pair on the couch, Tul was still leaned back slightly and Max was sat close by but his body was completely turned away, both men sat with red ears from the pure awkwardness and embarrassment of the situation, it didn’t take Maengmum long to figure out what was going on but she stayed silent for now. Perhaps it was the few Sherries or the red wine she drank that kept her gossiping ways at bay.

“hey...we’re just uh- “Max looked around and grabbed Tul’s controller and pressed it to the others chest before randomly spamming the buttons on his controller. “playing video games, heh...did you guys have fun?” He asked, sounding awkward and panicked even now.

“Yeah, Olive got cut off and Good had his first drink, I ruined a perfectly good dress and didn’t get drunk” she huffed before crouching down, taking Good’s hand and dragging him across the living room with her full strength, Olive was still around her ankle. It took a few minutes to get them both into their beds, a lot of kicking and screaming and people complaining for a glass of water or feeling sick. The phrase ‘THIS IS YOUR OWN FAULT!’ has heard more than a few times.

“GO TO SLEEP OR I CHANGE THE WIFI PASSWORD!” Maengmum snapped, her angry voice was the scariest yet most motherly voice you could ever hear, and then soon there was complete silence.

After a while Max and Tul both sat in complete silence, playing their game. Each of them had caught the other glancing over at them at least once, it was like they wanted to talk about what had almost happened, but right now it was better for them both if they just stayed silent and didn’t even think about bringing it up. Even though it was something they both had wanted at the time, they were both busy questioning themselves.

‘Why are you even like this?’ Max questioned as he kept playing the game to distract himself, as he was playing, he kept thinking of Tul, or more precisely, Tul’s lips. He had gotten too into his own thoughts to realise Tul had finally beaten him at the game.

“Said I could beat you” Tul smiled brightly and turned to face Max. Looking at him as he spoke.

“Yeah but erm, that’s because I- I “Max really didn’t want to way the reason he beat him “I would have won if I had dodged your last combo, you button smash too well”

Tul hadn’t even realised that his full attention was on Max’s lips at this point. “well I didn’t kiss- MISS- Miss... I didn’t MISS” Tul panicked as he stumbled over his words, trying to correct his blunder.

Max laughed a little ‘oh my god his laugh’ was all Tul could think, it only made him smile brightly, ‘He’d probably call me lame if I told him how cute his laugh was” he sighed. But little did he know that Max was in complete awe over Tul’s smile. They were completely whipped for one another without fully realising it. The almost event tonight was the reason the pair had fully come to terms with their feelings.

“I know what you meant” Max chuckled before looking at the clock “am?!” they had messing around all night.

“I should head back; let you rest up” Tul awkwardly scratched the back of his neck as he stood.

Max only grabbed at his hand to pull him back onto the chair. “Tul it’s am, stay till the morning, it won’t kill you” He said before looking at their hands, both so hesitant to pull their hands away quickly. Was it wrong for Max to think Tul’s hand in his own felt nice? Like it didn’t feel wrong?

“alright but I’ll just sleep out here- “

“don’t be dumb, do take the bed, I’ll happily take the floor” Max huffed out as he tried to stand, stumbling slightly but was caught by Tul luckily or else he would have probably seriously hurt his leg.

“no, you take the bed then, don’t be dumb” Tul mimicked his voice before helping him into the room.

“how about we both take the bed? We’re both two grown men, mature” Max suggested to which Tul more than eagerly nodded in agreement.

 

For the following hours, Max and Tul squabbled and whined, kicking at one another and tugging and pulling at the bed sheets, shoving around for more space. Although they had such a brief awkward moment prior to this, the two of them slept comfortably beside each other.

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

The morning soon came after an almost restless night for them both, of course for no other reason than the fact Max slept in a double bed with a single bed sheet and ONE pillow. So, it was a constant battle for comfort and warmth. Now if they were camping that would have been fine, but this was in a house, in a city, surrounded by civilised people...Tul recalled himself referring to Max as a savage several times throughout the night, both of them had bickered constantly and neither of them actually got more than an hour of sleep at a time since Max liked to spread out like a starfish in the centre of the bed and Tul liked to hug into his pillows...just this time he didn’t have pillows to hug and Max had to peel Tul from his arm and side continuously. Tul had been trying to get back to sleep for almost two hours before he completely gave up, peeking his eyes open for a brief second to see if he was the only one awake. To his surprise his face was inches from Max’s, who seemed to still be fast asleep. And for a brief second Tul felt himself suck in his breath and lean away, looking over his face slightly ‘ how can he pull off having bed hair?’ he thought to himself before moving a hand to lift up his fringe, continuing to look at him, he obviously wasn’t thinking straight, straight was the last thing his thoughts were whilst in bed with Max...but he wasn’t going to just shout that out for everyone to know. After the events of the night before, Tul’s thoughts were far from normal. They were a mess, he was questioning things he hadn’t ever thought of before, he was confused, questioning his feelings and just over all didn’t have a clue what he was doing. It wasn’t like he could just bring up the events of last night.

‘oh, hey Max do you remember when we almost kissed? Yeah was that legit or were you just trying to beat me at a game?’

‘Just wanted to check if being locked in this apartment for weeks has just gotten you really horny or if you actually meant to make a move on me’

Tul mentally slapped himself as he thought of last night, how they had almost kissed, how his lips tingled at the thought of it and how looking at Max’s lips sent chills up his spine. “damn it” he mumbled slightly to himself as he looked at Max, still holding his fringe from his face, until Max’s eyes darted open, looking directly at Tul. It was like something out of a horror movie, watching somebody comeback as a zombie or a dead body just deciding to get back up...he had opened his eyes far too sudden to be awake.

“is my face really that interesting?” Max asked as he looked up at Tul who retracted his hand and looked at him in horror as if he had just committed some heinous act.

“I...I...” Tul wasn’t even planning on finishing his sentence because his first instinct was to move his legs out, knocking himself backwards off of the bed whilst kicking Max out the other end at the same time. Both of them grumbling and whining as they hit the ground.

“why would you do that? I only asked a question” Max said as he sat up, throwing his arms onto the bed and cupping his own cheeks as he looked over at Tul, a smug grin on his face.

“Stop that.” Tul said abruptly, pointing at Max as if he was warning him of something.

“stop what?” Max asked as he got back onto the bed and put a hand out to help him back on. Making sure he didn’t hurt his leg.

“that...” Tul pointed at his hand before getting up himself “that stuff” Tul replied, looking anywhere but at Max.

“stuff? OH!” Max grinned and moved closer to him on the bed. “you mean the two gay men sharing a bed and waking up to find the other admiring your face stuff? Gotcha...” Max nudged him and let out a small laugh, but Tul just felt awkward at this point, almost nervous to speak, was he teasing him for that? He didn’t mean it; his mind took over and didn’t think rationally at all.

“I uh, I gotta go. Wow...uh you’re feeling alright, yeah? Don’t need help with anything?” Tul asked as he looked around for where he kicked his shoes off.

Max looked dumbly down at his leg which was still heavily bandaged and wrapped up tight “hmm nope...I think I’ll be off my feet for the next week” He responded stating the obvious.

“nah I mean like; do you need help going anywhere? Or like something?” Tul asked again, trying to be more specific.

“like the toilet? I’ve damaged my leg, I’m not an old man” Max joked before shaking his head letting out soft laughter “no, no. I’m going to sit inside and study or something boring...do something I’m actually good at.” He shrugged.

 

“we could sit at the library all day? Or you could sit court side at my basketball practice today? I kind of have a game next week” Tul said as he strapped his shoes up.

“really? So, you’re against olive?” Max asked, moving to the edge of the bed.

“Yeah, so I guess you’ll cheer for her more than you’ll cheer for me?” Tul asked, glancing over his shoulder to catch Max rolling his eyes.

“who said I would cheer for you?” Max huffed out slightly as he turned away slightly. He had never cheered for Olive, he didn’t cheer at basketball games, football? Sure, he loved that sport. But he didn’t go watch games anymore, it kind of dragged him down at the idea of only being able to watch and not play anymore.

“I know you’ll cheer for me...” Tul smiled and ruffled Max’s hair slightly when he noticed that his usual goofy looking smile was gone.

Max really was going to protest...but Tul was right, he most likely was going to cheer for him. And why? Because he was whipped for him, this boy could tell him to bark and he’d probably do it. Max basically went through the same old routine every day, everything was boring and getting tedious... that was until Tul had come around, Tul had at least gave him something to do when he was bored, kept him amused when he was bored, checked up on him when he was hurt or sick, it made him feel like he was cared for, as much as he hated being smothered with attention... Tul’s attention was the best. He didn’t want to admit it though, they had become such best friends, and the incident the night before could have possibly changed that.

“you got me there...” Max said looking up at him, smiling slightly, the same smile that always melted Tul’s heart. Tul had only just realised why he felt that way. “but fine...fine, just meet me at the library after your practice, your team is full of assholes, I’ll end up breaking another leg before the day it out”

Tul grinned and stepped back, grabbing onto the door handle. “DEAL! I’ll see you later, you rest your leg and don’t forget to eat, alright?” Tul was totally concerned about how Max was doing, mainly because everybody in the apartment was still passed out or somehow still drunk, so he had no help at all if something happened.

“okay, just go” Max flailed a hand before falling back onto the bed, smiling like an idiot to himself as he thought about the night before and this morning.

He felt like a dumb teen with a crush, he didn’t enjoy feeling like this, it made him feel vulnerable.

 

* * *

 

 

Tul didn’t exactly make it to practice on time though, he had been taking his time so he could text Max more, but it only resulted in him arriving almost a full hour late. His Coach was beyond furious as he was the team’s best player and he hadn’t been there for the past practices. That would have been fine if it wasn’t the seasons biggest tournament coming up.

“Where the hell have you been?” Tay snapped slightly in a hushed shout as he dragged him to the side.

“I uh...I was staying over at Max’s” Tul said quietly for only Tay to hear, Krist and Godt were lingering about, if he said he was spending the night at another males house then they’d never let him live it down, in fact they’d most likely destroy him, making him quit the team or accidentally fall over and break an ankle so he couldn’t play anymore.

“seriously? Doing... doing what?” Tay asked as he nudged Tul, grinning slightly “did you geddit?”

“get it? Get what?” Tul asked confused, tilting his head like a confused dog.

“you know. IT... some ass” Tay grinned, Tay knew that Tul had totally been crushing on Max way before Tul had even realised it himself, to constantly he had been teasing him for it, of course when it was safe to do so. He didn’t dare risk outing himself or Tul to the rest of their group.

“what?! No! fuck off” Tul snapped shoving Tay to the side, he was still questioning how he felt about Max he didn’t need Tay and his over perversion of the situation to contribute in how he thought about this.

The issue with Tul shouting was that it altered his coach, that hadn’t yet noticed that Tul had arrived so late.

“TUL! You show up late, then you hide at the back of the court instead of warming up? No chance, 30 laps...go” His coach said bluntly, making him grumble.

“but coach, 30...that’s a lot...I’m so tired too. Can’t I do 5 today then finish the rest another time?” tul asked, he didn’t want to have to run 30 laps on top of practice, that would only leave him a short amount of time to meet Max afterwards.

“fifty? Did I hear you say? fifty? Yeah, I think that should suffice, 50 laps after practice.”

“Coach! I said 5!” Tul whined as he got up to stretch.

“another damn word Tul and You’ll be running until they shut the courts for the night, understand?” his coach snapped. He was always so blunt.

“fine” Tul grumbled and continued to warm up and stretch “asshole” he muttered only to feel somebodies hand on his shoulder “coach...”

“that’s all night...hope you didn’t have plans” He huffed out before going back to what they were doing.

Throughout practice Tul was talking to Tay about the incident that occurred back in year one of their course, about the incident he caused. “did you know the guys leg I shattered was Max?” Tul asked, looking at Tay who only shook his head.

“I didn’t know you caused any accident actually.”

“I got banned from the football team and he can’t play any sports ever again, and I’ve been giving him such shit recently too especially with all he’s been through, I’m a dick” Tul grumbled, feeling horrible. The more time he spent with Max, the more guilt he felt for how he treated him, it ate away at him and made him feel horrible, made him feel like Max didn’t deserve the stress he put him through.

“what he’s been through?” Tay asked in slight bewilderment. He was totally out of the loop of college drama, especially when he had been so pre-occupied recently with other guys.

“yeah just the fact his legs screwed up and being stuck with his dad...I dunno he needs to be cut some slack” Tul replied as he continued to warm up for practice.

“ah divorcee kid...that shit sucks”

“nope, worse” Tul said not realising he had just said the one thing Max had asked him never to mention.

“shit Max lost his mother?” Tay asked a little too loud, Tul rather quickly covered his mouth and slapped at his arm, looking around hoping nobody heard.

“you tell a god damn SOUL I told you that and I’ll bury you alive Tay, understand?!” he snapped slightly which only caught the attention of everybody on the court.

Tul wanted to throw himself out of a window at this point, he wished he hadn’t even gotten to practice, maybe then his dumb mouth would shut up for more than a second.

“I- I won’t tell... alright? I won’t say a single word I promise” Tay gulped as he looked up at Tul who loomed over him, looking like he was ready to kill him “secrets safe with him” he then covered his mouth and gave him a look that said, ‘I’m sorry’.

Tul huffed and patted his back “forget it, Lemmie quickly text Max that I’ll be late then- “Tul watched as the coach took his phone from his hands.

“you’ll get it back at the end of your laps” The coach said before walking off, leaving Tul no time at all to complain.

“shit...”

 

* * *

 

 

Meanwhile, Max was sitting at the library, he had already been here most of the day, with the exception of getting lunch and the length of time it took to get from one place to another. After about three hours he had gotten a little bored with revision, he had updated his journal and even questioned every little problem that could possibly cross his mind. Of course, that main problem being how he felt about Tul.

‘He almost kissed you too, what about that says he doesn’t like you?’ Max asked himself before swinging in his chair.

‘sure, but he could have just been caught up in the moment’ he replied to himself, trying to rationalise.

‘caught up in the moment? come on Max, idiot. You both almost kissed, you’re both good friends...you get along. You almost got along too well” He huffed and sat forward again, drumming his fingers on the table before looking at his phone, hoping Tul had texted him.

‘pfft nothing, I told you so, he got weirded out, that’s why he left so soon this morning’ He told himself as he rested back in his chair, the longer he sat there, the more he slipped off to sleep, still so exhausted from hardly sleeping the night before.

He probably would have slept for the whole day and night if the librarian hadn’t tapped at his shoulder to wake him for his loud snoring.

“huh? Oh...sorry” Max said slightly panicked when he woke up.

Quickly he checked his phone for the time.

‘9pm... still no Tul. Stood me up’ he thought before shaking his head ‘this doesn’t class as being stood up, it wasn’t a date” He said and pushed himself onto his feet, keeping quiet and not even bothering to text Tul. No longer in the mood, he just wanted to get home and have another nap and ignore everybody.

As he got outside, he noticed how bad it was raining, another thing to ruin his day, walking home with his leg like this took twice as long, not to mention the fact that keeping grip of the crutches in the rain was going to be very challenging.

When walking down the steps he noticed somebody running towards the library, totally drenched from head to toe. ‘get a load of this idiot, he’s gonna get sick’ he thought to himself before noticing it was Tul, huffing and panting whilst he tried to catch his breath, you could see even in the rain he was sweating, and he was still in his sports clothes. ‘oh god that’s my idiot’ he thought as he looked away quickly.

“Max. I am SO sorry, I had to do laps and I- and my coach took my phone so I couldn’t text you and I was sure I wasn’t going to be able to make it to you before you left. I didn’t think you’d stay this long, and then I saw the rain and I was going to text, but my phone was totally dead when I got it back and- “

“it’s fine” Was all Max said, cutting Tul off completely, not caring for what he had to say right now, he was cranky and cold. “you have priorities, it’s not like I waited all day or something” he huffed out and continued to make his way down the steps, only for Tul to grab his arm.

“come on, don’t be like that.” Tul held onto Max’s arm with both hands now giving him his best puppy dog eyes. “I’m really sorry”

Max glanced up and grimaced when he saw exactly what he was trying to do ‘damn it’ he rolled his head to the side slightly and looked at him. That face really did win him over every single time, and Max hated how Tul could do that, he was really wrapped around his little finger and couldn’t help it. “look, I said it was fine Tul, seriously”

“you sure?” Tul asked as he stood closer, his face dangerously close to Max’s.

‘This boy has no shame’ Max thought to himself as he leaned his head away, nodding slightly “yeah...”

“good, then you’ll still cheer for me at the basketball game?” Tul’s mocking sad expression rather quickly changed to a cutesy smile that warmed max’s heart. Damn it was like loving a golden retriever.

“fine” Max said seeing his smile then scoffed “maybe” he added quickly.

“Maybe’s better than no” Tul chimed before grabbing either side of Max’s face and huffing “you’ve not eaten dinner yet have you?” He asked.

‘What is he my parent now?’ Max questioned himself before shaking his head, he was still a little bitter about practically being stood up today.

“alright, I’ll try make today up to you, and I’ll buy you dinner” Tul said and instead of grabbing his wrist like normal to pull him along, he took hold of Max’s free hand which wasn’t occupied by his crutch.

“I-Uh”

“no- don’t say anything if you aren’t going to say what you want to eat” Tul warned before beginning to pull Max along with him.

Max seriously expected to be taken to a shabby corner shop to pick up snacks like they usually did after spending the day at the library, but certainly not this time. They walked further than normal and reached a small cafe, it was open pretty late, later than most anyway. And it didn’t seem much bigger than a study hall, that of course in6cluded the visible kitchen space. But compared to the other places they had eaten, this seemed pretty classy.

“come on, I used to eat here all the time” Tul smiled and dragged Max inside without listening to his protests.

“pick, I’ll pay for ANYTHING...so eat as much as you like.”

“anything? Alright spicy shrimp soup...and uh... nom yen” Max shrugged.

“why aren’t you eating more? You usually eat loads” Tul grumbled.

“big lunch” was all Max said.

“don’t lie”

“you made me lose my appetite”

“ouch...” Tul winced at his words. “did I really upset you by not meeting you?”

“no, I get a funny feeling in my stomach when I’m around you that’s all” Max responded before looking back at the menu and ordering at the counter. Ignoring any further questions.

Tul kind of knew was he was talking about without even needing to ask, he had been feeling the same since the night prior. He had been thinking over all day just exactly what the feeling meant, was it good? Was it bad? He didn’t quite know but the feeling wasn’t at ease now that he knew he had upset Max somehow.

“I promise I’ll find a way to make it up to you” he frowned and ordered the exact same for himself before pulling Max away to a table to sit.

“yeah, yeah” Max just sounded unamused at this point.

After a quite a while of awkward silence, Max finally spoke up. “I don’t know if the feeling is good or bad” was all he said, it was vague, but it was enough for Tul to understand what he was saying.

“what do you mean?” Tul asked hesitantly, now he was either about to get shot down completely or Max was going to give him hope.

“I mean I don’t quite understand if I wanna say what I wanna say, I don’t quite know if liking you is a good idea” he shrugged and picked at his food, looking away from him.

‘liking me?’ Tul looked up and blinked slightly at his words.

“don’t look at me like that, you heard me, I like you... wasn’t that obvious from last night? Hasn’t it been obvious for the past two weeks? Or are all guys totally idiots?” Max asked a little too bluntly.

“no... I uh...kind of feel the same.” Tul mumbled into his glass as he had a drink.

“sorry I couldn’t hear you from the mass amounts of liquid gargling in your mouth at the same time” Max huffed out.

“alright, I’ve been thinking about it for a while, I wasn’t sure until last night and I- it’s like something clicked and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, about you and felt so guilty for not making it on time today, and I got super worried when it started to rain. I kept thinking what if you had maybe slipped and hurt yourself, or a driver hadn’t seen you crossing the road at the speed of an old man...Max I really REALLY care about you and it’s making me feel weird, I’ve never liked a guy and- “

Max pushed his fork forward to shove food in Tul’s mouth, cutting him off again “shut up, you talk so much, just tell me you like me” Max huffed out and pulled his fork back.

“I-I... I do, I like you” Tul coughed out as he ate the spicy shrimp, he had been fed.

“there, wasn’t so hard” Max said looking down at his food, smiling like an idiot as he thought more and more of Tul liking him.

“you’re smiling? that’s disgusting...but kind of cute” Tul teased

“hey! Hey! No... we’ve only just clarified our feelings, jumping to the cutesy shit stage isn’t happening, you either work your way up or you don’t at all” Max laughed slightly before the two of them went back to eating.

The pair spent the night talking over stuff, making jokes at one another and just enjoying each other’s company, the two were definitely more comfortable with each other now that all the tension between them was cleared, but of course Tul was still set on making it up to Max for standing him up today.

“I’ll make it up to you by taking you out on a date then, how about that?” Tul asked as he walked Max back to his apartment.

“deal...but I’m not just some guy you can wine and dine” Max clarified before slowing down when they noticed Godt and his group.

“damn it” Tul huffed “come on, let’s just go past and ignore them” He said as he took hold of Max’s hand.

 

“well if it isn’t the school queers!” Godt shouted out, tul didn’t care what they shouted at him now, but he didn’t want Max going through anything else.

“come on aren’t you gonna introduce us to your boyfriend Tul?” Krist asked.

“or should I say your girlfriend? like who wears the skirt?” Godt asked after.

“fuck off” Tul snapped slightly.

“hey pretty boy, did he snap your leg like he did back in year 1? Or did he snap it whilst you were both messing around” Godt asked, which instantly brought a sense of alarm to Tul.

“what?” Max asked and looked over at them.

“oh shit! You didn’t know?” Godt huffed out a laugh “Your little pansy was the little bitch that put you out of football, should have just put you in a wheel chair instead”

Max at this point had let go of Tul’s hand and looked more hurt than furious.

“Max... I didn’t know it was you back then and- “Tul was cut off when Max grabbed his wrist

“let’s just go...please?”

“alright” Tul didn’t want to argue, he didn’t want drama. He didn’t want Krist or Godt getting any more involved than they were already.

“yeah go, go run off and cry to your mummy” Krist called out “oh wait...he hasn’t got one, maybe you should do us a favour and go visit her, homo”

Max froze where he stood, his grip on Tul’s wrist totally slackened as he took a second to process their words. They mentioned his mother, it hurt pretty bad to not only have them use her to insult him, but that meant Tul had told them.

“Did you tell them?!” Max snapped slightly as he turned to look at Tul who was horrified. Max sounded furious.

“Guys just cut it out... max please no I didn’t I- I let it slip when talking to Tay, they must have been listening, please I didn’t say to- “

“save it” Max practically spat out in disgust. “after all, why would you wanna keep talking to a motherless queer hmm? Go back to your friends, at least you’re wanted there” Max said, knowing he didn’t mean it but it was either be hateful or break down crying, after he had just opened up to him he felt like not only his trust was broken but now his heart, he felt betrayed and used.

Max made his way out of the situation as past as possible, he just wanted to go home and cry, he just didn’t want to exist, he wanted his mother more than anything, so his first instinct was to turn to the only person that acted exactly like her. Maengmum.

He practically fell into her arms as he cried, almost knocking her off of her feet as she caught him, sitting with him for hours as he just cried and sniffled and called himself a fool and questioned if he was just faking everything to get information to mock him. Max was a wreck and even Maengmum couldn’t make him smile, not even Olive threatening to beat the three to dust made him stop crying and not even Good’s anecdotes about terrible masked dates he had been on made him laugh. He just needed to cry until there was nothing left, he just needed to be left alone whilst he broke down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

“Max he’s out there again” Max looked up from his place on the couch when Maengmum spoke, for the following week after his fight with Tul, he hadn’t moved from the couch, he avoided the library, he avoided the gym...he even avoided the cafes and shops he enjoyed visiting, no longer going out in case he met Tul at any of those moments. 

“mmhmm” was all Max replied, he knew what they meant without even needing to stand up and look, he was just wanting to remain a lump on his couch, trying to draw over and over again but everything he drew he scrapped and threw across the room.

Max wasn’t the only person that had been throwing paper for the whole week, just outside of the balcony door, in the area where Max had been avoiding most of all, their usual place to stand and call one another, Tul was sat on his balcony, throwing paper airplanes as best as he could over to Max’s balcony, hoping that he would open them and read the notes he had written, hoping that Max would just pick up his calls or even just look at him.

But not once did Max open the door, n6ot once did he pick up those papers to read the notes, he didn’t even acknowledge Tul sitting out on the balcony for hours on end, the constant calls that were missed and the texts that remained unread.

Every time that door opened, Tul couldn’t help but hope it was Max, that perhaps he would read the notes or answer his texts, that they could go back to at least being friends, because in all honest? Tul missed him, his days were boring and uneventful, he tried to distance himself from his group, in fact, he hadn’t even spoken to Godt since the incident. But every time he got his hopes up as Good would slide the screen door open and sweep away the pieces of paper. Pushing them down the gaps in the balcony wall onto the ground many floors below, crushing every hope Tul had of speaking to Max again any time soon.

“sorry” Good would mouth, shrugging off the second hand guilt he felt from making Tul look so miserable.

Sometimes Tul would rush out to the balcony when he noticed Max’s curtains had moved slightly, as if he was at his window. Tul’s actions were getting a little beyond desperate at this point, but he just wanted to see him.

Max wasn’t doing so good either, he didn’t even want to look at the things that he had around Tul, They both shared the same favourite food, the same shows and movies, they even liked going to the same places, so everything to Max right now just felt dull, Things he loved reminded him of things he hated more than anything.

“are you going to keep lying in a lump in the corner or are you going to come to lunch with us?” Maeng asked as she stood by the door, slipping her heels on, she was worried, honestly, she was, Max was her best friend even though she acted like a mother to him at the best of times.

Max only shook his head and hugged the pillow, turning his back to the door. “no” he huffed.

“fine, do you want me to drop anything off for you? Or? Maybe a drink? more sketch books? A rebound guy?” Maengmum asked before getting nudged out of the way by Olive.

“shh, leave him be, he’s an emotional wreck, want me to cut his dick off sweetie?” Olive asked. although she was being blunt, she was still trying to be caring. An effort was made, although it didn’t really change his mind upon the whole situation.

“no” Max mumbled out once more. He didn’t want anything at all...although his stomach rumbling said something totally different. “actually...can you pick me up- “As he was about to ask for something there was a sudden knocking on the front door behind where Maengmum and olive were stood.

“are you expecting someone- “Olive stopped herself when she heard the croaky and sniffly sounding voice of the overly desperate Tul outside.

 

“Max... Max, I know you’re in there...please, it’s been a week. I didn’t mean to upset you...or hurt you or betray your trust. I didn’t think- “Tul was bluntly cut off by the front door swinging open, and for a brief second he could see Max lying on a heap on the couch, it hurt to see, it hurt more than6 anything in the world.

“yeah Tul you didn’t thin, you never think, everything you’ve done, said...even acted like was all bullshit...bet you read all about him in his diary so you could get closer to him, so you could make him out to be some time of idiot, so you could laugh at him, why would you play with somebodies feelings like that?!” she snapped loudly, Olive an76d Good holding her back, but Tul looked through her towards the lump on the couch.

Rather quickly the door was slammed in his face an76d he felt his chest tighten, his eyes stinging as he tilted his head up to try stop the tears from running down his cheeks. It hurt more than anything to know that he had not only hurt Max, but he had lost him. He pressed his head onto the door as his breathing hitched “I- I didn’t pretend to feel that way” he said.

The truth was he had serious feelings for Max, he had gotten so used to just being around him that being alone or with his old friends group just felt strange, like he wasn’t having fun anymore.

He had enough, he knew crying wasn’t going to help him, feeling sorry for himself wasn’t going to get Max back, it wasn’t going to gain his trust and it certainly wasn’t going to better the situation. So, the first thing he knew he had to do was go directly to the root of the problem.

Rather quickly, Tul had turned and made his way back to his apartment, wasting no time what so ever, his feet pounding on the stairs as he hadn’t even bothered to take the elevator, he wasn’t in the mood for waiting, he needed to keep active and moving or else he felt like he was going to crumble completely. He was struggling already to keep it together, he had finally accepted for the first time ever that he liked another man, the only person he had ever fully liked and because of his group and the fact he couldn’t shut his mouth he lost him, he had no idea how to handle it but he wasn’t handling it well, not at all.

He swung the door to his apartment open and as loud as he could yelled on Godt, hoping he was in, because right now he was ready to throw him over the balcony, he wanted to throw anything he could at him, he wanted to punch him in his smug face, he just wanted him to hurt.

“Godt you piece of shit! Get out here before I drag you from your damn bed by your neck you sleazy prick!” he snapped, even Aim who was wandering down the hall almost chocked on her tea at his words.

“Tul baby, calm down, what’s wrong? are you still hung up over what he did?” she asked and put a hand on his shoulder only to have it hit off.

“stay out of the way Aim, I swear to god I’m not in the mood for your peace maker shit right now, just...” Tul turned and put the cup of tea back in her hands “please just go sit in the room, or the balcony, just not-“ He hadn’t gotten the chance to finish his sentence when he watched Godt walk into the room.

“what’s the shouting all about Tul? You know I was out late” he grumbled and slouched onto the couch, and Tul couldn’t do anything but glare, gritting his teeth as he tried to keep it cool. If looks could kill, then Tul would be doing a life sentence for the damage he would have done to Godt.

“You’re an utter shithead” was the first thing he said to Godt in a full week.

“okay? And?”

“no, okay you don’t even seem to care about what you’ve actually done, you legit don’t even show a god damn sign of remorse, you’re like a sociopath” Tul snapped, not even controlling himself at this point.

“what the hell are you talking about?”

“you know what I’m talking about, what you said the other day to Max, how you treated him, you and that heap of shit Krist, you should see how he is now, he looks a wreck, he won’t even talk to me, he won’t look at me and he doesn’t even want to know me by the looks of it...”

“and so, what? When the hell did you start defending queers? Huh?” Godt asked bluntly.

“since I god damn am one, So what if he’s gay, I don’t care, Tay doesn’t and aim doesn’t, you’re the only issue here...so what if he’s like this, or he’s lost a parent, or he does art and likes sugar sweets more than anything...nothing matters now because you’ve destroyed my one chance of being happy, my chances of having a decent friendship.” Tul’s voice cracked slightly and Aim grabbed his arm, looking up at him reassuringly, she was just glad that Tul had finally stopped hiding behind Godt.

“you’ve totally destroyed my only chance of being with him too...you’re too thick to realise that though, like somethings wrong in your god damn head and you can’t allow anybody to be happy” Tul continued for a while longer, Godt looked unphased, like he wasn’t listening.

Aim could see how worked up he was, how he was stuttering over his words, so quickly she pulled him aside to the balcony. “listen, Tul I know what he did was HORRIBLE, but you need to understand some things wouldn’t have been said if you hadn’t read that diary, or if you had kept a secret, you’re to blame in this too...”

“I know I’m to blame Aim! I’m suffering for that now, I-I’ve lost him” Tul looked across to Max’s balcony, knowing that he was alone in the apartment. ‘he hates sitting alone’ he thought to himself.

“just stay out her until you’re able to calm yourself down, alright? I’ll try talk to him, you just sit and breath, please?” she asked with a heavy sigh.

 

* * *

 

 

Tul had done just what Aim had asked, he stayed out on the balcony until he calmed down, but the issue was, he hadn’t calmed down, he was still a mess, stressing over the slightest thing, finding himself on the verge of crying and cursing at himself for even thinking it was okay to cry over this, he hurt Max, tul knew he deserved to suffer for the trouble he caused.

As he sat on the balcony, he looked through the glass panels and only hoped that Max would come out or even look his way, but as he remained on the balcony even after it had begun to rain, He started to give up on the idea of forgiveness, of trying to get him back. He knew he had lost him.

Another hour had passed, and it had gotten cold as it got dark, the rain was brutally cold for once and the balcony was in the wind line, Tul was totally drenched, yet he still did not move.

“tul, Sweetie, it’s almost 10pm, please come in” aim said holding a cup of tea out for him in which he snatched up for the heat of the cup, shaking his head.

“I’m staying out here tonight”

“so, you can see Max?”

“no- So I can just think...you know?” Tul asked as he leaned back into the wall of the apartment. Aim knew she wouldn’t have the slightest chance in persuading him, so she just nodded and advised he slept.

“don’t get sick, I’m going to bed” She smiled weakly before closing the door back over.

Soon enough, Tul felt his head grow heavy, far too heavy to even keep up, his eyes hurting...he really needed to sleep, like right now. ‘I’ll just rest my eyes for a few minutes’ he told himself before soon falling asleep out in the cold wind and rain.

 

* * *

 

 

Max peaked from the curtains and saw Tul fast asleep ‘what the hell, it’s raining?!’ Max asked himself as he used his crutches to take himself out onto the balcony, yes, he had still been keeping tabs on him, he was worried sick, he was hurt and upset...but he was a human with other feelings and attachments.

The original plan was to go out for some air quickly, but a part of him wished Tul would just wake up, he hated him, he despised his friends and he felt betrayed...but he still felt something good for Tul.

He stood for another hour, seeing how Tul still slept through the rain that totally drenched his hair and clothes ‘wake up soon...please?’ he said quietly and turned to head back inside for the night, to finally get some rest. He was exhausted but crying on the couch all day really leaves you dehydrated and needing a nap.

“going to bed so soon?” Maengmum asked as she stood at the counter, her hair up in a scruffy looking bun and a green face mask, in the darkness of the kitchen it really was enough for his heart to stop for a second.

“you miss him, don’t you?” Maeng didn’t approve of Tul, she never had, but she also didn’t approve of Max suffering, of him not finding motivation to create art, of him crying on her space on the couch, Max NEVER cried so it was strange to see his emotional break down first hand.

“huh- I-uh” Max lowered his head and nodded slightly “I’m an idiot”

“an idiot in love”

“yeah I guess” Max frowned even more deeply than before if possible. “I don’t want to feel like this, I want to be happy, we could have been happy, but this...I can’t deal with this Maeng”

“listen to me Maxie...I hate him, he hurt you, he gave secrets of you to others...but if you can’t get over him, you either need to patch things up or cut him out completely, no more shifting choices, you choose one and you stick to that, then time will heal.”

“you should work with fortune cookie fortunes” Max let out a small light hearted laugh before moving to hug her slightly, avoiding the green sludge mask on her face “I love you so much, thank you for helping me out” he said to Maeng, appreciating everything she had ever done for him.

“alright, now Olive’s basketball games on tomorrow, so remember to come with, even if I have to drag you their myself.” Maengmum said before ruffling his hair “and just let’s get back to normal, alright?” she smiled and tapped his back to shoo him to bed.

 

“alright... back to normal” Max said to himself as he wandered off to his bed.

 

 

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

“Get up asshole I’ve got a damn game today and you better hold that banner up with Good or else I’ll throw the ball off court and at your head” Olive snapped slightly as she threw a slipper at Max.

He didn’t want to wake up and go to the game, he didn’t want to see Tul in fact. His team was the opposing from Olive’s, and Tul had said prior to the drama caused that he wanted Max to cheer for him, that wasn’t likely at this point.

“fine” Max huffed, sitting up from his bed and looking towards the window, seeing that Tul was no longer on the balcony. ‘thank god’ he thought to himself before questioning just how long he actually stayed out the night before.

The house was pretty much silent as he got up and into the kitchen, Good was eating his breakfast in the corner with a stressed expression on his face as he waited for the banner with Olive’s name on it to dry, Red paint all over his hands, the table, the white cabinet doors and some on his face.

In the opposite corner of the kitchen Maengmum stood glaring silently at Good, her pristine white blouse had a giant red paint splatter across it and it really didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened.

“so...” Max was hesitant to speak, you could practically hear the little cogs in Maengs brain working double time to try calm her down, it was like looking at the caricature of rage, fingers drumming on the table, the repetitive tap tap tapping growing tedious to hear. Eyes drawing daggers and her nostrils practically flaring like a demon. It didn’t make it any better that she was stood beside the cutlery drawer, one wrong word and everybody was done for.

“you kind of look like the dragon from Shrek” Good said as he put his spoon down, and as fast as he spoke, he was silenced when there was the scrambling sound of Maeng’s hand in the drawer where most sharp items were kept.

“Maeng no! put the skewer down!” Max yelled as he moved to take it

“THIS WAS EXPENSIVE! HE NEEDS TO PAY FOR WHAT HE’S DONE! ” Maengmum flailed as Olive and Max both wrestled the Skewer from her hands.

“go drink some herbal tea! Go!” Max spoke as if he was telling a dog to get off of a couch.

“fine, but you!” Maeng pointed a stiletto nailed finger in his direction, gritting her teeth before running the finger over her neck.

“oh god” Good gulped before covering his neck “I didn’t know she owned designer stuff”

“she doesn’t...it’s a fake” Olive grumbled as she searched through her gym bag. “right, I’ve got to head off first, I’ll see you both there? Wont I?” She asked, mainly angled at Max.

“yeah, I’ll go, only if you play your best, I don’t cheer for losers” Max exclaimed as he patted her shoulder “stretch beforehand alright?”

“I’m not an idiot” Olive huffed and lifted her bag “right that’s me gone, See you later at the winners after party” she waved slightly as she made her way out of the house, receiving a small wave from good who still held his cereal bowl, and a slight glare from Maengmum that still clutched a cup of red berry tea between her claw like hands.

 

* * *

 

 

Soon enough Max was sat in the living room, listening to Maengmum talking about how terrible her hair was and how it ‘seriously wasn’t in for this season’ but honestly, Max didn’t care for Maengmum trying to justify spending excessive amounts of money on a haircut, his attention was elsewhere. The window that looked onto Tul’s apartment to be exact.

“you know he probably left already” Maengmum said, dragging Max’s attention to her quickly.

“huh?”

“don’t play dumb, I’ve watched you look out the window for the past thirty minutes, and the only thing out there is our balcony and Tul’s.” Max slouched at her words. Was he seriously looking out at the window that often?

He shook his head and stood up, not needing his crutch anymore, his foot didn’t hurt that much, and it was only in bandages now anyway. “can we go? I want to get a good seat; you don’t want sat beside the toilets, do you?” he asked only for Maengmum to stand up and grab her bag.

“no! GOOD LET’S GO!” she shrieked.

 

* * *

 

 

Not too long after, they had finally arrived at the court, taking their seats with the rest of those supporting, there were opposite sides of course. Olive’s team all tried to wear something red, whilst the opposing side wore anything green. It felt like a bad quidditch match in all honesty.

Whilst sitting waiting for the game to begin, Good talking to the guys from his group, Maeng taking photos and acting like she was interested...Max caught a glimpse of Aim, Tay and Godt sitting on the opposite side, knowing that meant Tul wasn’t far behind.

And There he was, wandering over to the rest of his team, Tul, looking greyer than usual, in fact he didn’t look alright at all, he looked sick. ‘That idiot stayed out all night’ he thought to himself as he looked over at him, Tul not even turning once, he just remained slouched where he stood, listening to his coach.

“did you see Tul? He doesn’t look well” One of the girls behind him said

“I know right? I saw him as he was coming onto campus and he was sneezing and coughing and everything” another girl replied.

‘he’s sick...’ Max thought as he glanced over, feeling Maengmum slap at his arm.

“what?!”

“you’re staring over at him and Godt is staring at you, unless you want more drama cut it out.” Maeng hissed slightly.

Max only grumbled and continued to watch as they set up and started. Unlike the rest of their side, he sat in almost complete silence whilst those around him jumped around in content at the fact their team was winning, Sure he was happy for Olive, but it was a given that she would win...one reason being that she was amazing at any sports she did, and another reason being the opposite teams best player wasn’t even able to shoot a basket from how wrecked he was.

Olive would look up and point at Max when she noticed he wasn’t up and cheering but he couldn’t help it, he wasn’t in the mood. “psst” he heard from beside him “help me hold this” Good said as he held the banner, he painted with Olives name and number on it.

“uh- uh, alright” Max said as he began to shift and change how he sat so he could hold the poster comfortably.

Just as he raised his hand up to hold it, he watched Tul fall on the court, tripping over his own feet from the looks of it, and the second he hit the ground Max stood quickly, letting Olive’s banner fall to the ground, the undried paint sticking onto Good.

‘he better be okay’ He found himself thinking as he leaned around people to see him, and for a brief second, He locked eyes with Tul, giving him a look of concern. He felt kind of responsible for how terribly he had been playing, if he had just spoken to him perhaps, he wouldn’t have stayed out in the rain and gotten sick.

The idea of Max giving him any attention, good or bad, was enough for him to push himself up, wanting to believe that that look of concern was sincere, and that thought alone made him want to do better.

In the midst of this, Maengmum looked between them both, seeing that they were staring at one another “I swear to god” she mumbled to herself as she saw Tul pulling himself up, Max still looking concerned “make it obvious why don’t you” she said more to herself than speaking out in the open.

As the game continued, Tul’s team did do a lot better, of course due to the terrible start they weren’t beating Olive’s team but they were definitely close to doing so, but Tul was just so tired, he wasn’t just unwell, he was pushing himself twice as hard to make up for the trouble he had caused in the first half.

“come on, come on!” Max said, raising his voice slightly, luckily everyone around them thought he was shouting for somebody on Olive’s team, but in reality, no matter how much Tul hurt him, no matter how much he had hated him and how much he didn’t want to be here, he still said he could cheer for him, and he still wanted to. “idiot” Max huffed as Tul’s team had officially lost.

“come on, Olive’s down there!” Maengmum said as she shuffled from her seat on the bench, her heels clicking on the wood as she made her way down to hug her friend who had just shot the winning basket.

“alright alright, wait on me” Max whined as he got up and made his way over to Olive who was just to hyped on adrenaline.

“did you See that! Did you?!” Olive yelled.

Max nodded and seriously did try to put his attention on her, but over Olive’s shoulder he could see him, the trash that made him feel so confused and hurt, but made him feel happy, that gave him motivation to do anything but sit on the couch bored all day, He saw Tul slouched into the benches at the side, nobody talking to him, his coach shouting at him, scolding him like a little kid. He looked pale, he looked sick, he didn’t look like he had slept at all either.

Even olive had noticed where his attention was. “that’s from sitting on that rainy balcony all night” she sighed and patted his shoulder “go check on him, he looks a mess, and not just because a girl beat his ass at his own game” she grinned and wandered off to talk to Maeng and good.

Max did just that, not even waiting for the coach to stop, walking over and pointing at Tul “Uh...can I talk with him or is he still getting told off for being sick?” Max said a little too blunt, he knew it wasn’t Tul’s fault for playing so bad, Tul was usually amazing at Basketball.

Once told he could speak with Tul, Tul could only smile up at him ‘damn it how can I shout at him when he looks like this?’ Max asked himself “are you alright?”

“can we talk?”

The pair had spoken at the same time, neither answering each other for a few minutes.

“fine” Max finally replied first, following Tul out into the quiet hallways outside of the main sports hall.

“okay hear me out alright?” Tul started and nervously played with his hands, “I’m sorry, for everything, and I’m not just saying everything because I can’t remember what I’ve done wrong exactly, I know what I’ve done, I- I read your diary, and I was the one that damaged your leg back in year one, I then almost broke your leg again, I destroyed your chances of ever playing sports again, I was rude and hid behind my friends instead of sticking up for you, I kept secrets from you, I lied A LOT, I even let slip about your mother and I am SO, so sorry... I’ve destroyed your trust Max, and I know I don’t deserve to be forgiven, because what I did was seriously shitty- “

“stop acting like an idiot” Max blurted out quickly.

“h-huh?”

“I just needed time to brood...but why did you sit on that balcony every night? Now you look sick, like seriously sick.” Max said as he was able to see his features more clearly. The bags under his eyes were never this dark, plus his face looked all flushed and red. “you’re not looking after yourself at all” Max said as he held at Tul’s chin, tilting his head to either side to look at him more, he was angry with himself more than anything, sure he was hurt, but his childish brooding had effected Tul too.

“you don’t look so great yourself either, but I’m fine, seriously, just listen to me, hear me out...please, just I know I’ve been stupid and- and an idiot and I know it would have been better if I had never read your diary in the first place or if I hadn’t asked for your number, or met you because you probably hate me and-“ Tul’s rambling was quickly cut short when he felt Max’s lips on his for a brief second.

“h-huh” He looked up at the other, totally shocked at his actions, he had expected Max to tell him to stay away from him, to never go near him again, he expected to have Max hurt him the way Tul had done so previously, not this. He gulped slightly as he tried to process what had happened, looking at Max in complete confusion. ‘did he just...kiss me?’ he asked himself as his eyes gazed over Max’s face.

And without another word the two stood in silence looking at one another, Tul continued to question exactly what had happened, along with Max who was stood more shocked with himself that he had done that, a whole week away from him was practically self-inflicted torture, Max found it cruel how they had both only admitted to one another about their attraction to one another. No, this was more than a simple attraction, they had opened up, spilling their feelings, no matter how awkward or strange they did so, and then the drama of everything happened ripped them apart from one another. Instead of killing any feelings that were there, it had only made them stronger, it hurt even more when he saw Tul on his balcony. Now that they were practically chest to chest, it was like all of those built up feelings were slowly slipping out, Max felt like this was a now or never situation...he wasn’t listening to his head like he knew he should have, he just wanted Tul back.

Max leaned in once again, kissing him, Feeling Tul lean up and hold onto his arm. Both feeling relieved, Tul wasn’t hated and hadn’t lost him, and Max was almost frightened that Tul wasn’t going to kiss him back, but he did. The feeling of their lips together felt right for so many reasons, and they didn’t care who saw them, all Max could think about was how soft Tul’s lips were, how well he kissed and how he didn’t want stop.

Tul’s heart felt like it was beating at a thousand miles an hour, his hands gripping onto Max in an almost desperate manner, he just needed him now more than anything, the feeling of being wanted, of being held close and not let go, it was remarkable and he didn’t want it to stop, tilting his head slightly to deepen the kiss, but that didn’t seem to be Max’s intention, feeling their lips break apart. Tul leaned close, trying to connect their lips again, locking eyes with him as he leaned against the wall again, his hands still on Max’s arms, His face certainly was redder and warmer than before, He seriously didn’t think Max would have done that, and he was still seriously in a state of shock.

“wh-why- “Tul could hardly speak, it was like that part of his brain that created speech had totally shut off for a moment.

“You can’t even begin to understand how horrible the past week has been, how god damn hard I’ve tried to stay off that balcony, to not even look at your texts, I felt like I was going crazy just hiding away in my room, I was so damn lonely” Max admitted as he leaned his head into Tul’s shoulder, Tul moved his hand to play with his hair, he couldn’t help it, he usually played with Max’s hair and it had just become a habit at this point.  “I didn’t have anybody to draw...and when I tried to draw everything looked bad, the only thing I wanted to draw over and over again was you and I could do it with my damn eyes closed...” Max added which Made Tul hold him closer.

“I didn’t even go out, I just threw those stupid notes at your balcony for a week straight, I got better at making paper airplanes though” Tul said with a weak laugh, it was really horrible, he hated the feeling of loneliness, he only wanted to speak with Max but he couldn’t, so for almost a full week he spoke to nobody.

“I seriously tried to do anything but draw, because every time I picked up a pen and paper I ended up drawing you, an6d Maeng kept ripping up the paper...but then I tried to play video games, and do you know how difficult it is to play mortal combat alone? I was ready to sit through teaching Good to play because I was that tormented” Max said as he stood up slightly, laughing a little and by god was that the best sound Tul had heard all week.

He seriously missed seeing Max smile and laugh like this, it seriously warmed his heart and made him realise just how badly he missed him, it was only a week, but it felt like months.

“I’m sorry for what I did- “Tul said quietly as he still held onto Max.

“don’t worry about it, just promise me you won’t let me stay away from you for another damn minute, I was going crazy without you” Max admitted and leaned in again, stopping himself from kissing Tul again.

‘tease’ Tul thought to himself before he moved his hand to the back of Max’s head, pulling him in to make their lips meet once again, and this time it was far more intense.

Max had given up with holding back, tilting his head slightly as his tongue ran along Tul’s bottom lip, and as clear as if verbally asking, Tul parted his lips, groaning into the others mouth as they continued to allow what started as a simple kiss, to become a rather heated make out session in the halls. Both suddenly stopping at the beyond familiar click of heels, their foreheads pressed together as the pair glanced to the side, their hair and shirts dishevelled and lips swollen from rough kisses and lip biting, there stood Maengmum, Tay, Aim , olive, Good and Godt...of course Godt wasn’t stood for long as they watched as he shoved his way back into the gym.

“what the fuck!” Maengmum and Aim both shouted at the same time, glaring to the side at each other before looking at the pair that still stood against one another in the hall.

Max chuckled, hiding his face in the crook of Tul’s neck as he felt a sudden wave of shyness hit him, Tul only laughed nervously and took hold of Max’s hands.

“what?” Tul asked raising a brow. “Aim you told me to make a move”

“I told you to move on “Aim replied shocked before looking at Maengmum again who was genuinely surprised.

“I... That’s my boy” Maeng replied to the situation before turning and slapping at them to get them to stop crowding, especially Olive who was trying to snapchat the whole thing.

“We’re tired, we’re going back to my place” Max said as he looked up, practically letting the others know NOT to return back at the apartment for any reason what so ever. Even Tul glanced at him with a raised brow at exactly what he was thinking.

“uh-uh yeah, don’t wait up for me Aim.” Tul replied through nervous laughter before he felt himself being pulled down the hallway quickly by Max who had laced their fingers together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	10. (+18)

Upon arriving back at the apartment, Tul was just following after Max like a little lost puppy at this point, his lips swollen from the constant kisses they had stopped to share. It was like they couldn’t keep off one of another, even now as they entered the apartment, Max was held onto Tul’s waist, pressing Tul against the wooden door frame as he bit gently down on his bottom lip, tugging ever so slightly before breaking apart completely, a confident smirk on his lips as he wiped his lips with his thumb.

“don’t get so cocky” Tul said as he nudged him slightly.

“hey, I didn’t say anything, is that your way of hinting at the fact you think I was going to call myself a good kisser? Because then that mean you’re thinking that I’m a good kisser” Max smirked and still held his waist.

“that logic makes no sense” Tul grumbled and leaned his head back onto the door frame, sighing slightly.

“it doesn’t need to, you just need to know that I’m good at what I do” Max responded as he leaned into Tul’s neck, pecking at the soft unmarked skin.

“a-ah! What are you doing?” Tul yelped, surprised at what he had just done, he was still a little on edge about doing anything like this, after all he hadn’t actually gotten with anybody before.

“nothing much, why do you not like it?” Max asked with a raised brow, he didn’t think Tul was being serious when he had first told him he hadn’t ever been with anybody this way, but from his reaction, he was seriously starting to believe him. “you were being serious when you said you’ve never gotten with anybody before, weren’t you?” he asked as he stepped back, leaning on the opposite side of the door frame.

“uhuh...what would I gain from lying huh?” Tul asked as he looked down at his feet, it was like he felt embarrassed now that he hadn’t slept with anybody before.

Max noticed how he looked and tilted Tul’s head up by his chin “hey, it doesn’t matter that you’ve not been with anybody, you’ve got me now right?” Max asked as he leaned back into him slightly, Tul tilting his head to the side for him to get to his neck.

“I-I’m going to shower!” Tul said, panicking slightly as he broke away from where he was stood, leaving Max at the door frame. He usually showered at Max’s place when they hung out, but Max knew he was doing this to avoid him.

“alright, fine” He grumbled and wandered over to the couch to sit and sketch a little, flicking through for a blank page but his entire sketch book was just filled with pictures of Tul. ‘damn...I’ve seriously got it bad’” he thought to himself, finally realising just how much he missed tul over the past week, and just how much he ran through his mind. The worst part is, some night he couldn’t sleep because he was awake just thinking of him, but those thoughts usually advanced to a certain point that he didn’t mind. He knew at the time he had fallen out with Tul that thinking that way was wrong, but after today? He didn’t mind.

 

* * *

 

 

After a while, Max had totally slipped into a world of his own as he scribbled and doodled anything that came to mind, of course that anything was the same as always, Tul. But he had gotten so into his drawing that he had completely lost track of time, as if detaching from what was currently going on.

“hey-Max” He heard Tul speak as he quickly looked up “could I borrow sweat pants or something? I kind of left my gym bag at the college” He said as he fixed the towel around his waist.

‘oh my god’ Max thought as he dropped his pencil, he had seen Tul shirtless before many months ago when they had first met, back in the gym locker room...but he had certainly changed since then, and his feelings towards him were different now too, looking at the shirtless male made him feel strange. His eyes scanning over Tul’s tan and toned water slicked body, looking where his hands were placed on his hips, the towel being pushed low to reveal most of his v-line, Max had caught himself biting at his own lip before he shook his head. “I-uh...yeah...lemmie just, uh, get that...for you” he gulped as he got up from where he was sitting and slipped past where Tul was stood, wandering right into his own room to find something for Tul to wear, as he grabs hold of the first pair of sweat pants, he felt Tul grabbing onto his arm, slowly he glanced out of the corner of his eye at the other male.

Tul moved his free hand up to Max’s cheek, turning his head to face him. Whilst taking a shower he had given himself time to calm down and at least Attempt to mentally prepare himself for anything that may or may not happen this evening. He cupped his cheek slightly as he took a step closer to Max, stood in between his legs as he looked up at him with a flirtatious glare.

Max gulped as he tried his hardest to keep his eyes off of his chest, but meeting his eyes was the biggest mistake, ‘he needs to stop staring at me like that, he doesn’t know what it does to me’ he grumbled to himself before he felt Tul’s hands move to slowly unclick the first button on Max’s shirt.

“Tul...what are you trying to do?” Max asked, although he knew the obvious answer at this point.

“if all goes well? You” Tul said bluntly as he continued to undo the rest of Max’s shirt buttons, Pressing a hand to his bare chest, continuing to lean6 in slightly and gently press a kiss on the corner of Max’s lips, trailing the kisses slowly down to his jawline, then onto his neck, then down to his collar bone, his hands moving to slip the shirt from his shoulders as he slowly lowered himself.

Max noticed exactly what he was doing and quickly caught under his chin with his fingers, leading his lips back up to meet his for a split second before he pulled away. “I don’t want your lips used for something like that, that’ll just tarnish them” Max brushed his thumb along his lower lip, smirking as he saw the hint of desperation in Tul now, any time he leaned close to his lips Tul’s eyes would flutter shut or he’d lean in.

Leaning in to meet his lips, Max kissed Tul deeply, holding the back of his head and running his fingers through his hair, tugging gently as he took a few steps forward, making Tul stumble slightly and fall back onto the bed, propping himself up by just his elbows as Max moved onto the bed also. Not breaking the kiss once, his lips lowered onto Tul’s chest without hesitation, completely passing over his neck.

He felt Tul fall completely onto the bed the second his lips grazed over his nipples, feeling fingers lacing through his hair an6d tugging every time he kissed and marked the sensitive skin.

“m-Max...” Tul whined out slightly at Max only continued, his hands slowly removing the towel, his han6d slipping up Tul’s inner thigh and rubbing, god did it feel good, he was so nervous about this, but Max was making sure he was fine with everything he did.

Max definitely had experience, far more experience than76 Tul had. As Max trailed his fingertips up Tul’s inner thigh, making him shiver and squirm slightly at how it tickled, he finally placed his lips down onto Tul’s nipple that was already sensitive from the teasing he had just done.

A soft sigh passed Tul’s lips as he tried to keep himself calm, but the second he felt Max’s tongue graze his nipple it was like something took over him, a side that he didn’t know about. He tugged his hair and moved his leg to rub against Max’s bulge, he was sick of how slow this was going, he had already gotten himself so worked up in the shower, he just wanted Max to hurry up and take him...but he did assume that they’d take a while, after all it was his first time.

He felt Max pulling the towel away from him completely, and as he did so, Tul undid Max’s trousers, lowering them slightly, then moving to sit across his lap slightly, Max still wouldn’t stop marking and touching his nipples, they had gotten so sensitive that he was easily drawing moans from Tul’s lips, he tried to hide them, he thought he could control himself at least a little while longer, but he couldn’t he just enjoyed the feeling far too much.

Once again, he moaned his name as he ground his hips down onto him, not totally mean6ing it, but it certainly got the reaction he wanted, he stopped teasing him finally.

“You do that again and I swear I won’t be accountable for anything I do” Max groaned as he looked up at Tul who ran6 his fingers along his jawline towards his chin which he tilted up. “so, stop” max said through a small grown, but his voice was just so damn hot right now.

Tul wanted to know just what Max would do, he just wanted to push him further, slowly he leaned to his ear, grinding down on his lap once again “make me” he practically purred into Max’s ear, which for him was a terrible decision.

Max pressed Tul back onto the bed, his hand moving from Tul’s thigh and directly onto his already erect length. Gripping tightly and stroking him slowly, antagonizingly slow. “a-ah! Fuck...” Tul gasped out as he leaned his head back, gripping the sheets.

Tul didn’t think Max would continue for as long as he did, stroking an76d tightening his grip, but even when Tul’s knuckles were white from gripping the covers so tightly, his back arched and his toes curling into the messed-up bed sheets, Max still did not stop. “M-Max please...ah! I can’t take it” Tul panted out, feeling strange, a familiar sensation from his many sessions alone, but he had never felt it so intense.

Max huffed “stop your whining” he said bluntly before catching Tul’s lips with his own, silencing him finally before feeling a thick warm liquid on the palm of his hand, suddenly breaking the kiss, looking down at Tul who kept his eyes shut, panting and moaning as he rode out his orgasm. “somebody can’t hold off” Max teased as he wiped his hands on the sheets beside them, they’d be throwing the sheets out or putting them in to be washed anyway so it didn’t really matter.

Tul had thought that was it, but he could have sworn he felt Max tracing his fingers up the back of his thigh, lifting his leg ever so slightly “what are you doing now? Huh? Haven’t you done enough?” he whined slightly, sounding like he had had enough, but in all seriousness,  he was just about ready to beg for him to touch him like that again, but Tul was far too prideful to bring himself down to the level in which begging to be touched was on.

Max leaned to the side table for a split second, pulling out a bottle of lube and applying some to Tul’s entrance, hearing his soft whimpers “I-it’s cold” he heard Tul gasp as he wriggled and squirmed under his touch, but Max didn’t stop, instead he pressed gently on his entrance with two fingers, rubbing gently, a smirk curling on his lips as he watched over Tul, seeing how he reacted, watching as his lips parted for moans to escape from but no sounds escaped, only the sound of his feet rubbing into the blankets, and his fingers gripping the sheets could be heard.

He pressed harder onto him until he finally pressed a single finger into him, watching as the male beneath him quickly became tense, squirming at the obvious new and strange feeling. “a-ah alright no- oh god” Tul gasped and shook his head but as Max slowly moved his finger in and out of him, the whines of complaint soon became soft uncontrollable groans of pleasure. His scrunched-up features soon relaxed as he watched Tul’s reaction to the sensation.

“shall I add another?” Max asked, smirking when he watched Tul nodding eagerly, not even needing to speak, biting down on his lip as he waited for Max to do something else.

He hadn’t realised how different two fingers felt, he thought One was intense to begin with, but two was much more worse, his eyes pinching shut as he gripped the bed sheets “M-Max” he stuttered out but his words fell silent again, the sound of pleasure filled the silence of the room.

“shhh calm down, relax” Max said as he rubbed Tul’s inner thigh with his free hand, an76d it did actually help calm him down, of course not without some squirming from how ticklish he was.

Max took the chance to move his fingers a little faster, and a little deeper than76 usual, seeing Tul running his fingers through his own hair, his kiss swollen lips remained parted through the whole time.

After a little while longer, Max smirked and gently removed his fingers, making Tul think this was it, but this was far from being over. Gripping tightly at his hips, Tul was flipped onto his stomach, holding onto the pillow in which he partially buried his face into.

Max laced down his spine with kissed and deep hickies before he sat up, applying more lube onto his entrance, hearing the same soft sounds as before “cold?”

“shut up” Tul huffed and bit his lip, questioning what Max was going to do to him next, but he could tell by the hands on his hips just what he was going to do. He couldn’t help himself but sit up slightly to glance over his shoulder at him, but as he moved to sit up, he felt an uncomfortable pain pressing into him “holy shi-it!” he gasped and leaned back into Max who held him, letting out a groan in Tul’s ear.

Tul’s eyes were pricked with tears as he tried to adjust to the feeling of Max in him, it hurt, it really hurt, but he could deal with it, he knew he could, or at least he’d get used to the feeling, Tul ground down slightly as he tried to straighten his back, turning to look at Max who leaned over his shoulder slightly. Max’s arm was looped around Tul’s neck gently, holding him close.

He parted his lips to speak when he suddenly felt Max raising his hips into him “max I- oh -w-wow” he gasped as he ground down, the sensation was absolutely breath taking and hurt so badly, but the feeling of Max’s lips on his suddenly distracted him from the pain.

Every time Tul moved, Max felt himself moan into the others mouth, the slightest motion was driving him crazy. So gently he pressed Tul’s hips down, raising his own in some attempt to steady the motion more into his own control, so he would at least be ready to feel what Tul was making him feel.

Tul tried pulling his lips away slightly as he winced at how rough Max was being, but no matter how badly it hurt, he still found himself rolling his hips back on the feeling, looping an arm back around Max’s neck, feeling the others tough lips against his shoulders, leaning around to his neck which was still sensitive from how badly Max had marked it with a plethora of hickies.

For a slight second Tul had even questioned if he should have asked him to stop, but when another agonising wave of sensualness passed over his already trembling figure, he let the idea slip from his mind just as quickly as it had entered it. An overwhelming and beyond familiar aching arose in his lower stomach, trailing down past his hips as he knew he was close to release all over again. He had never felt this good before, and never in a million years had he expected Max to be the one to make him like this, a trembling mess in his hands for him to do what he wished with. Max had Tul wrapped around his little finger, as it was with Max too...Both being very self-aware of this matter.

Tul began to move his hips faster and faster against Max, leaning forward slightly to grip the sheets, and just from his actions, how his body twitched and shivered against him, how the slightest touch made him buck his hips back onto him, it had just become too obvious that Tul was yet again close.

And although Max wanted to see those gorgeous faces he pulled when in a moment of complete euphoric bliss, he also wanted to drive Tul crazy, he wanted to waste himself with the other, taking out all tension he had built up in the past week without him, and for Max that was a lot, but for god knows how long, Max had started to think of Tul like this, he couldn’t help it, even sitting in the library with him had become torture because all he could do was think of him like this, he had hated himself for it, telling himself that he was disgusting and perverted, that it wasn’t right, but now it was, now it was so right...But although he wanted to continue until Tul was begging for this moment to stop...he still slowed, watching Tul’s hands slowly loosen their grip on the bed sheets, pulling out slightly.

Tul sighed in relief as he had finally gotten use to the feeling, but then rather quickly felt a hollowness, he felt empty, the tension lifting as he knew Max was pulling out of him. ‘no-no he can’t do this...this isn’t fare ‘he thought to himself, he was so close and Max was doing this, it was cruel, he would have took hours of being teased if it meant this feeling didn’t stop, anything was better than being all worked up, hot and bothered then being left to deal with it.

Once Tul had felt Max totally pull out he turned, looking more annoyed than anything and max had noticed this.

“what?” Max chuckled as he tilted his head, as if he didn’t know what the matter was.

“you’re cruel” Tul blurted out as he moved closer to him. “how can you get somebody to this point then just leave them?” Tul glared but put a hand on his thigh, trailing it up further and further to Max’s length, hearing his breathing grow heavier, watching him tilt his head back slightly as he groaned. But then feeling the hand on his own wrist.

“don’t” Max spoke softly, shaking his head slightly. Did he change his mind? did he suddenly not want this? If that was the case Tul would stop, but he needed to know.

“why?” Tul asked simply before he felt himself once again on his back, Max holding his wrists to the bed above him.

“if you don’t stop, I might go to rough, I might hurt you” Max replied as he looked over Tul’s features.

Tul leaned up, meeting Max’s lips with his own before falling back onto the bed “you won’t...I trust you completely” Tul said quietly, watching as Max lowered a hand, one hand still clutching his wrists to the bed, and the other now doing something out of his line of vision. But from the familiar aching sensation bellow that followed, he knew exactly what he was doing.

“m-max! a-ah!” Tul groaned, his back raising from the bedsheets, arching slightly.

It felt so much better like this, not just the feeling of being close to him, but he wasn’t stuck staring at the bedroom wall anymore, he could see Max as he wriggled his wrists free he was able to cup his cheeks, able to lean up and kiss him, The more he looked at Max, the more he felt himself unable to think of living a day without him, he hadn’t noticed it until recently, he thought he loved him as a friend for so long, but it was much more than, as their bodies moved together, Tul had the sudden realisation that he was in love with Max, ‘it’s so soon’ he thought to himself, nervously, as his hands moved down to touch him, any part of him, but his eyes always came back to meet Max’s.

Soon enough as the two continued, Tul felt himself shivering, begging to release, needing to, he had lowered himself enough to beg, wanting Max and only Max. And soon enough, The sensation of Max filling him was enough to bring Tul to his climax, his moans louder than before, so Max did what he did best and silenced those moans with his lips one last time, these final few minutes were all so heated and dramatic, both of them gripping at one another, holding one another close as they lost themselves in one last heated moment.

 

* * *

 

 

‘woah” Tul groaned gently as he rested his head on Max’s chest, hearing a soft chuckle from the other male.

“what? Enjoy yourself that much? Am I that good?” Max asked in possibly the most self-assured tone Tul had ever heard.

“don’t get so cocky, I’ve got nobody to compare you to...so I don’t know if you’re good...you could have been doing this wrong the whole time” Tul mumbled into his chest.

“did it feel alright” Max boldly asked

Tul grumbled and nudged him “...yes” he huffed and tried to turn away, but Max only moved and help him close, pecking his lips.

“good, I was kind of scared I had hurt you” Max smiled and held his chin, tilting it up as he kissed him gently again.

As Tul heard the front door open, he felt Max instantly break their kiss and shuffle to the other side of the bed, trying to grab his underwear. “hey...hey, calm down...If they find us...” Tul slowly pulled Max back and pecked his lips “then it’s their own fault, I don’t feel like hiding this...hiding us, from them, from anyone”

Max felt his cheeks warm at Tul’s words, leaning into the hand that caressed his cheek, leaning in gently to kiss him again.

That was until Olive burst through the door, holding the trophy for her tournament she had won earlier that day.

“MAX LOOK WHAT I- AH HOLY SHIT PUT ON PANTS!” She screamed out in minor shock at the fact she had just walked in on her best friend and the man that she was ready to kill on the basketball court, in bed together without clothes, looking pretty messy.

“what?! What’s wrong?” Good asked as they ran to the door, Maengmum shoving her way to the door.

“Oh my GOD!” Maengmum yelled before Max and Tul both threw the blankets over themselves, laughing like the embarrassed idiots they are.

“I can’t believe you’re fucking instead of us celebrating...DISGUSTING” Olive shouted more comically than anything before Max flailed his arm.

“shut the door!” he whined until they finally did, Leaning into Tul once more “Do we have to stop now?” he asked, kissing him again, smiling against Tul’s lips before he felt Tul completely move away shaking his head.

“I don’t want to stop, not this, I want to stick by you, even if you’re an idiot that likes to doodle, that likes stupid video games and dumb sugary snacks. Max the past few months with you have been the best months of my whole life, I can’t see myself being without you” Tul told him, cupping his cheeks in his hands, pressing their foreheads together as they spoke.

“Tul I...” Max let out a soft chuckle, hearing Tul speak like this only made his heart ache, he felt like he had butterflies in his stomach, Tul made him feel so many things all at once, he was so confused but still so certain of what he wanted now, Him. And only ever him.

“you don’t have to say anything” Tul hushed him slightly before pressing his lips to Max’s, kissing him gently.

Max could only feel himself chuckle as he broke the kiss after a few seconds “good, because I was actually just going to ask could we go for another round” he said before seeing Tul glaring “what? Is that so bad?” he asked.

“shut up you idiot” Tul huffed and pulled Max back down to kiss him, Max pulling the blankets back and over their heads as he slipped a hand onto his waist, keeping close to the man that he had already given his heart to, not caring for any problems that would come in the future, because right now all he wanted was him, what they both needed was each other and they both had no plan of splitting up any time soon.

 


End file.
